Road salt supply slipping
Governments see huge spikes in prices, make plans to conserveBy AMANDA SMITH-TEUTSCH Tribune Chronicle
AUSTINTOWN - Low supplies of road salt may mean treacherous roads this winter, locally and across the nation.
"People may not get the service they did last year," Austintown administrator Michael Dockry said Monday.
The price for road salt the township was quoted through the county purchasing program doubled, from $35 per ton to $71 per ton, Dockry said. The other purchasing cooperative the township participates in did not receive a single bid, he said.
"The story is that we all used too much last year," he said.
He blamed the shortage on heavy snowfall throughout the latter part of the winter plowing season.
The problem is being repeated across the area and nation. The shortage could force many cities to salt fewer roads, increasing the risk of accidents, officials said. Other communities are abandoning road salt for less expensive but also less effective sand or sand-salt blends.
Dockry said the township has two options to conserve salt and save money: Blend the salt with gravel slag, which will still give drivers some traction on ice-covered roads; and scale back on the salt application.
"We may have to follow the Mahoning County model and only use salt on bends and curves and intersections," he said.
In Howland, prices increased from $37 per ton to $68 per ton; the 2,500-ton order the township normally purchases would cost $170,000.
"Howland has traditionally only used pure salt," administrator Darlene St. George said. "But with these prices, we're going to have to go to a mix."
Because of the hilly topography of the township, it will be difficult to scale back on application, she said.
"We don't want to do anything that puts the residents and those driving through the township at risk," she said.
The United States used a near-record 20.3 million tons of road salt last year, largely because areas from the Northeast to the Midwest had heavier-than-average snowfall. Parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, for instance, got four to six times their typical amounts. Vermont, New Hampshire and other areas set records. The heavy snowfall translated to depleted salt bins.
This year, many states requested bids early, said Dick Hanneman, president of the Salt Institute, a trade group, and salt orders grew significantly. Five states increased their orders by a total of 2 million tons over last year.
Suppliers quickly realized that at that pace, they would not have enough salt to bid on other contracts, he said.
The rising cost of gasoline and diesel compounded the situation, Hanneman said. Road salt - which, unlike table salt, is sold in large crystals - is transported by barge and truck from mines in Kansas, Louisiana and Texas. Some is shipped from as far away as Chile in South America.
State agencies that maintain interstate highways are supplied first, leaving smaller communities the hardest hit by the shortage, Hanneman said.
Other communities expect to use more sand or to adopt a cheaper sand-salt mixture. Neshannock Township in Lawrence County, Pa., plans to use a special pretreated salt mixture that isn't as expensive as regular road salt. The township's price for salt has nearly quadrupled, from $36.90 a ton last year to $145 for this coming winter.
When the winter storms hit, Dockry said drivers should keep road conditions in mind.
"We'll all just have to give a little more time to get there," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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smokey
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09-24-08 2:06 AM
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get out the snow boots and sleds people...how outragious
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oldgreenb
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09-23-08 11:45 AM
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yeah that plan is called "overtime" something that cities frown on, yet incourage with the idiot- supervisor that does not contract out enough drivers for winter and over works the regular drivers!! We are lucky there are not more accidents with these drivers pulling LONG shifts due to this dumb-a*s*s plan! AND why drop snow the night before a big storm?? and there is no snow??
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Billdog
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09-23-08 9:45 AM
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fltrplntman I always wondered why they didn't drop that plow already on the front of the truck. Put the plow down and push off the snow and drop the salt behind. It makes sense to me. Maybe there is some issue with this plan that I am not aware of.
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fltrplntman
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09-23-08 9:15 AM
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Well here is a way to save salt.... PLOW the roads FIRST... then put down the salt! Not put the salt down on the 6 inches of snow on the roads,then plow it into the yards along the road. It drives me nuts watching every road dept. do this.
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Billdog
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09-23-08 9:09 AM
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The last couple of years they mixed the salt with calcium chloride. It seemed to work well and melts at a lower temp then just salt. Now they assume that non of us remember that. Every aspect of our government is being gouged by some corprate money grubber. There is definitely something wrong with our country.
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Dschweck
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09-23-08 6:40 AM
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Let the STATE figure something out...Now that is a stretch,even at 6:41am!
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pahootaman
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09-23-08 6:35 AM
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Why is warren paying the adjusted price for what snow Wisconsin gets? Doesn't most, if not, all the salt that NE Ohio gets for roads come from Lake Erie? It's local stuff, why the 400% increase?
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