Okay, sure, some communities are getting smart and are restricting the use of sodium chloride when there's a reservoir nearby. The thing is, though, we've been doing this for so long it's already too late for a lot of drinking water sources. And once all those lakes and streams get contaminated, it takes more than a few years before it's okay to drink again. We're talking hundreds of years in some cases. Then there's our infrastructure.
Bridges suffer the worst from the effects of salt.
The salt gets into all those joints and works away on them over time. Over water, so you've got the moisture from the body of water contributing to the problem. God knows what the cost is of all that damage, but it must be astronomical. It turns out, all the steel girders that hold up the New York City subway system are rusting from the salt that's seeping down from the streets. And, if you think it's expensive to replace bridges, imagine what it will cost to replace the L train.