Salt shortage not affecting state roads

Christian Giggenbach

State Division of Highway officials say there will not be a reduction in services this year due to shortages in road salt, but “conservation practices” will be used to ensure there’s enough to keep the highways safe for motorists.

One salt expert said Midwestern states who were pummeled by record snows last winter are to blame for shortages which have caused prices to triple.

Currently all of the salt sheds in West Virginia are full, according to DOH spokesman Brent Walker, and the state is “well prepared” to tackle the onslaught of wintry weather.

“We have stockpiled enough stock for a normal winter based on historical data,” Walker said. “And we have the experience of several years of data behind us. We have every reason to believe it will be a normal winter.”

To help spread the salt more efficiently, several methods will be used, Walker said.

“We will be using some conservation methods such as calibrating our salt trucks more efficiently to keep more salt in the roads,” Walker said. “And we are also looking at ways to enhance the salt by adding a calcium chloride, brine solution, cinders and sand.

“These are all effective methods to use and we are better off than most states. Our first line of defense is salt and we will hit interstates first and major routes. Our mission is to make sure West Virginia roads are safe for the traveling public.”

But if Old Man Winter has more to shell out than what’s been predicted, salt shortages could pose a problem.

The price of salt has nearly tripled since last year, Walker said, from $45 per ton to $120 per ton. Although all the salt sheds are full, some highway districts have had trouble getting extra loads of salt.

“This has never happened before. Twice we have had six out of 10 highway districts who did not receive any bids for salt,” Walker said. “The companies were not able to fill the orders.”

So where has all the salt gone? Richard Hanneman, president of the Salt Institute in Alexandria, Va., said Midwestern states depleted most of the salt reserves this summer.

Last winter’s record snowfalls in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and other states were not forgotten by highway officials when it came time to buy salt this year.

“Agencies who experienced record snows lasts year in the Midwest sucked up huge amounts of salt reserves early this summer,” Hanneman said. “By the middle of July it was quite clear the demand was more than the supply on hand.”

Hanneman said for some agencies to ensure they would win bids for salt contracts, the states overbid more than they would ever use.

“So some states are sitting on large amounts of salt,” he said. “But they can’t sell it to anybody else.”

Ironically, West Virginia is sitting on major brine fields, but no one is mining them, Hanneman said.

“West Virginia actually has a lot of salt and the state has a rich salt history,” Hanneman said. “But they currently do not have any brine facilities operating. There are huge brine fields in West Virginia that have been capped.”

Hanneman said the largest salt mines in the U.S. are located in Louisiana and other salt comes from South America and Mexico.

It can be cheaper at times for West Virginia to buy South American salt rather than Louisiana salt because of freight and rail costs versus shipping costs, he said

Last year the U.S. used about 22 million tons of salt and two years before that, about 20 million tons of salt for wintry roads.

“But the year in between, there was only 12 million tons used,” Hanneman said.

“The entire driver of the road salt industry is weather, and none of us know what that’s going to be like. It’s just to early.”

So states like West Virginia will just have to sit back and see how much Old Man Winter is willing to dish out.

“A heavy winter would put a burden on us,” Walker said. “But we are prepared. In a worst case scenario, we would try and buy salt from other states.

— E-mail:

cgiggenbach@register-herald.com