UDOT [Utah Department of Transportation] maintains 105 salt stockpiles throughout the state. Approximately 50% of these sites use some type of detention system to catch water runoff from the stockpiles. In environmentally sensitive areas, UDOT uses salt detention basins constructed of dense graded asphalt mixes with zero air voids. Recently, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) raised concerns about the intrusion of salt into the ground water thus possibly affecting the drinking water. In an effort to address this concern, UDOT collaborated with the Utah Water Research Laboratory (UWRL) at Utah State University to evaluate their salt detention basins.

Core samples were taken from UDOT's sealed, zero air void asphalt liners and tested in accordance with the EPA's specified test procedures. The results of this testing indicate that the permeability values were lower than those required by EPA for landfill liners.