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Salts

Several different salts are responsible for salinity. Salts are minerals and are made up of free cations of sodium, calcium and magnesium that combine with negatively charged anions such as chloride, sulphate and carbonate to form a salt. This salt is unbound and free to move when water flows through the soil.

In NSW the most common salt causing salinity is sodium chloride - common table salt. But it is important to find out what type of salt is causing the problem, for example, some sulphate salts are very corrosive.