Recently, one of the parishioners in our church died. This lady was loved by all. At the viewing, Mary Alice and I waited for well over an hour to offer our condolences. At the funeral held the following day, our church was packed beyond capacity, with friends and family gathered to say their goodbyes.

I heard it said many times that day that this woman was the salt of the Earth.

This saying comes from Matthew 5:13. Webster describes a very good and honest person as being the salt of the earth.

Today, we are told by doctors to limit our salt intake. It hasn’t always been that way. Through the years salt, which is one of the oldest articles of commerce, has been used as money in almost every country in the world.

The first reference to salt occurs in Job 6:6, “can an unsavory thing be eaten that is not seasoned with salt?”

Salt is found in the sea, on the Earth and even in our blood, sweat and tears. Man first learned to remove salt from the sea by using the sun. The wind and the sun evaporated the sea water, which was trapped in holes, leaving behind the crystallized salt.

Further inland man got his salt from natural salt springs or by hauling up the salty water (brine) from wells. This brine was then cooked in kettles over open fires and when reduced, the salt remained.

Animals have always worn paths to salt licks. Early humans followed these paths when in search of game, which usually led to a lick. Later, these trails became roads. In 1807 Daniel Boone and his sons marked an overland trail to a salt spring in central Missouri. Today, this trail is one of Missouri’s main east-west highways.

The Via Salaria — or salt road — was one of the greatest military roads in history and was built from the salt works at Ostia to Rome by Roman soldiers. Caesar’s soldiers received part of their pay in salt, which was known as their salarium, hence, our word salary.

North American Indians called salt the magic white sand. Many wars were fought between tribes over salt springs in inland regions, where salt was scarce.

Each gallon of seawater contains the two elements of chlorine and sodium and is known chemically as sodium chloride. The salt found in mines is called halite.

There is a little over a quarter of a pound of salt in each gallon of seawater found in the oceans. The Dead Sea, Red Sea and the Great Salt Lake contain even larger amounts. In the Dead Sea, the salt reaches almost a supersaturated state and any further salts added will not dissolve.

When salt appears above the ground it is called a salt lick. However, most salt on the Earth is deep underground and must be mined just as coal is mined.

The greatest part of the salt produced in the United States comes from salt wells by using waterpower. Two pipes (one inside the other) are sunk into the salt deposit. Pure water is pumped down the outside pipe to the salt vein, where it forms a brine of salt and salty water that is heavier than water and sinks to the bottom of the well.

This brine is then forced up the inner pipe by the pressure of the freshwater that continues going down the outside pipe. Air pressure is sometimes used to force the brine to the surface.

Today, there are approximately 1,400 different uses for salt. Since we have such a great abundance of salt, it is not as important to us as it was to our forefathers.

Salt is now plentiful and used much too freely. Since the 1940s in the United States, the use of salt for de-icing has increased. More than 10% of the world’s salt production is dumped each year on roads throughout the United States.

What happens to this salt?

Sodium chloride, in the form of rock salt, dissolves the snow and ice. The resulting water runs off the road and either seeps into the soil and groundwater or runs into our streams, rivers and lakes.

Salt is accumulating in our natural resources, sometimes killing trees and vegetation along our roadsides. In the New England States, road salt is killing sugar maple trees growing along streets and highways. Salt can damage vegetation (depending on the type) 400 feet off the traveled portion of our roadways.

When road salt contaminates our groundwater, some sources of drinking water could also become contaminated. Salt in drinking water is far more devastating than salt contained in anything else that passes human lips.

Researchers have found that people that have salt in their drinking water will have high blood pressure, usually the blood pressure of a person ten years older than they are.

An increasing amount of research is showing that road salt doesn’t just dissolve into thin air. Instead, as it splits into sodium and chloride ions, it is absorbed into roadside plants, accumulates in aquatic ecosystems, sometimes with devastating consequences. This saltiness can help invasive or even toxic species spread. Also, increased traffic danger due to deer drawn to salt-covered roads.

As part of a project at Lake George, in New York State, it was recently discovered that road salt can reduce the size of rainbow trout hatchlings by about 30%, influencing their ability to elude predators and decreasing the number of eggs laid. In another study it revealed that higher levels of salt could change the male-female sex ration of wood frogs. Hundreds of frogs raised in different tanks from eggs to determine that the number of male tadpoles that survived hatching increased by 10% from 40% to 50%.

This could influence the frog population. Fewer females could mean fewer eggs are laid, thereby causing population level changes over time.

We are all aware that road salt is causing many problems.

A few days of bare roads results in ten years of problems. There is no easy answer. In today’s world, the public expects the highway department to have the roads clear even before the snow has stopped. I think we need to realize that we cannot drive in January the same as we do in July.