Salinity and Alkalinity Increasing in US Waterways

A recent study is shedding more light on the scope of a problem that has ramifications for both drinking water quality and the condition of underground infrastructure — increased salinity of freshwater sources. A National Science Foundation-funded study looked at data over a 50-year period at 232 river and stream monitoring sites across the U.S. The data showed significant increases in both salinization and alkalization. “We created the term ‘freshwater salinization syndrome’ because we realized that it’s a suite of effects on water quality,” says Sujay Kaushal, a biogeochemist at the University of Maryland and lead author of the study. Over the