Courtesy AdkAction and Warren County (2021)
Brittany Christenson, left, and Kevin Hajos were named to the Adirondack Road Salt Task Force.
Warren County’s Kevin Hajos and AdkAction’s Brittany Christenson have been named to the Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task force by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Nominations to the task force came from leadership throughout the state government.
Christenson, the executive director of the nonprofit AdkAction, and Hajos, Warren County’s Superintendent of Public Works, will join 10 others on the task force.
According to the announcement, the task force will be chaired by Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Transportation. The Department of Health will be a member.
“Protecting our environment is a high priority to my administration and appointments to this task force are long overdue,” Governor Hochul said in the statement.
The task force, formed under a bill introduced to the state senate by then-Senator Betty Little, was codified last year, but has languished. The “multi-year pilot study” should have run between Oct. 15 and June 30 starting this year through 2024, the law says, “...with the purpose of gathering and summarizing available information and recommending best management practices and levels of service for winter road maintenance in the Adirondacks.” The task force has already missed one deadline.
“I am honored to be appointed to this important Task Force and eager to get to work with the other knowledgeable appointees that the state has convened to address road salt pollution across the Adirondack Park,” Christenson said in a statement. AdkAction’s mission includes work toward both environmental sustainability and improving the quality of life for low-income Adirondackers.
Warren County Administrator Ryan Moore said in a statement: “We are very proud of the work Mr. Hajos has done implementing new solutions to reduce the levels of salt that run off into Lake George and our other water bodies. His knowledge and experience will be of great value to this important task force, and we are pleased he was appointed.”
[Read more of our Adirondack salt coverage here.]
The task force is aimed at finding all the ways road salt makes its way into the vegetation and water in the Adirondacks and determining ways to lessen it. The task force is asked to look at a balance between wintertime road safety and the safety of drinking water and the environment.