Harsh snowstorms in the Northeast and Midwest sent many public works officials scrambling to clear roads this winter. The snow kept falling, decimating road salt supplies and sending locals hunting for the suddenly scarce commodity.

The storms hit several communities especially hard. In December, Fond du Lac County, Wis., used 3,357 tons of salt, compared with 464 tons a year earlier, according to The New York Times. West Des Moines, Iowa, road crews had to clear almost 60 inches of snow, compared to the annual average of 37 inches. For hundreds of other communities facing similar increases and higher gas prices to truck in salt, spring could not arrive fast enough. Now the planning begins for next season.

Where's the salt?

Salt may be cheap and extremely plentiful — so much so that, “We'll never run out,” says Richard Hanneman, president of the Alexandria, Va.-based Salt Institute — but only a portion of the available amount is mined annually. “The question is how much do we bring up from the mines,” Hanneman says.

Most of the salt used in the United States is mined in Louisiana, New York, Ohio and Ontario, and salt companies must guess each year how much should be mined for winter. Those guesses are based on the orders placed by highway and public works departments. The Salt Institute recommends that agencies estimate their orders by taking 100 percent of the average of the amount of salt they used for the previous five years.

Many contracts with salt companies guarantee the purchaser that up to 120 percent of their order will be available to them at the contract price. “Typically, we will order around 18,000 tons each season,” says Mike Kennedy, director of winter operations for Minneapolis. “Every few years the winter will throw us a curve ball and we may even need more than the 120 percent. Then it's a scramble and can be a risk because it gets real competitive, real fast. We would all love to share and help out our peer agencies, but we are usually all in the same boat. We have always been able to get at least something to eek through the winter, but have had to pay up to 50 percent increases, and then managed with that.”

Regional salt stockpiles are available to replenish agencies that need more than their average amount. But, because many agencies do not have room to store their entire orders, they leave tons of their reserved salt in the stockpiles until they need it, taking up room that could be used for extra emergency salt. That was one of the problems this year: So many municipalities needed salt at the same time, from the same stockpiles, that those supplies began to run low, and trucks had a difficult time getting the salt where it was needed. “No matter how much salt the companies have on hand, there is only so much material that can be physically transported at any given time,” says Bret Hodne, superintendent of public works in West Des Moines, Iowa.

A cubic yard of salt weighs a ton. “So, a half-ton truck only holds half a cubic yard of salt,” Hanneman says. “It takes many trucks to get the needed salt in.”

Using trucks to transport salt also drove up the cost, as the oil prices continued to rise during the winter. When numerous areas ran low on salt, some had to pay up to 70 percent more than average to move in more salt.

It is much cheaper and easier to stock up on salt during the summer and fall, when railcars and barges can transport it, rather than scrambling for it at the last minute, when trucks are the only transportation available, Hanneman says. This year's salt dilemma was “a combination of [cities] not taking all [the salt] they need and the severity of the winter,” he says.

Although many cities scrambled to deice their roads, Steubenville, Ohio, was the only city Hanneman knew that completely ran out of salt. Officials there closed two major roads to have enough salt to keep other roads clear. “The citizens were inconvenienced but not endangered,” Hanneman says.

In a number of communities, officials had to get creative with their salt usage. “The transportation issues that affected salt availability forced us to take a step backward operationally, and we elected to blend heavy volumes of sand with our salt,” Hodne says. “It was interesting to see the negative impact that this practice had on service levels, and we haven't even started the fun yet of getting to go out and clean it up.”

At least there was some forgiveness from residents. “The media attention regarding the salt shortages and winter driving conditions greatly assisted us in getting our residents to understand that it was not business as usual,” Hodne says.

Shortage solutions

As a result of the salt shortage, more public works officials are considering alternatives to coating roads with salt only. McHenry County, Ill., crews have been experimenting for about six years with an agricultural mix, which helps limit salt use and protects the environment. “Everyone is going to continue to use salt; it's the mainstay of what we do,” says Mark DeVries, superintendent of operations for the McHenry County Division of Transportation (DOT). “But, we're looking at alternatives to enhance salt and supplement it [for environmental reasons]. The salt and chemicals we're using on the roads eventually wind up in our water system. So, we're looking at some things we can do to help minimize the amount of chemicals in our water.”