system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
in the United States most northern states use substantial quantities of salt to de-ice roads and walkways; what impact does this have on the surrounding environment?
gpt
Geochemist from Minnesota:

It has an effect, but since much of the salt is only washed away when the snow melts the majority of it ends up in the storm water drainage systems. This system is designed to take water that is contaminated with all types of road/yard chemicals and keep them out of sensitive waters so the salt works along the same principle. Also, the only way the salt can move is to be dissolved and a long as it stays dissolved until it makes it down into the water table it isn't going to do much.

Just one note is that the salt used here doesn't seem to have a very large impact on the fertility of the trees/grass directly along the road sides so unless you were to get a large puddle of salty water evaporated in a location the concentration of salt would still be within the tolerances of most plants. Remember that sodium and chloride are very common ions to find in nature.