Salt (NaCl, MgCl2, etc) added to water will cause the water to ionize
into OH- and H3O+ ions (plus the salt ions). More salt = more H3O+ ions
= more acidic pH.  I would take it as pretty acidic, but again variable
on salt concentration.

Salt on it's own doesn't have a pH becasue it is a solid...
Matthew
Chemist (soon to be plumber- at least i'd be making $$$)

Alistair Bell wrote:

> off the top of my head...
>
> :)
>
> NaCl in solution does not supply any additional H+ or OH- ions to "create" a
> pH.
>
> Whether NaCl affects the dissociation constant of H2O I cannot say, but I
> would guess that the road salt solution would have pretty close to the pH of
> whatever water the salt was dissolved in.
>
> The rain/snow would be on the acid side I'd say, so the salt solution would
> be likewise.
>
>
> Alistair
>
> --
> '82 Westy -> diesel converted to gas in '94
> albell@uvic.ca
> http://members.shaw.ca/albell
>
>
>
>
>
> on 9/1/04 2:32 pm, Jonathan Farrugia wrote:
>
>
>>does anyone know the approximate pH range of a road salt solution?  i know
>>i should remember that from one of my chemistry classes but i can't
>>remember and i don't have a book around to look it up.  i did some
>>google searches but came up empty.
>>
>>jonathan
>
>