National salt shortage, local cinder shortage could spell nasty winter travel

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[If this winter proves as wild as the last, the roads could be in bad shape for a while.

State, city, county and township road crews do their best to spread salt and cinders to make the roads navigable, but a national shortage of salt due to this year's hurricanes has doubled last year's price per ton and salt availability is limited.

Harrisburg Street Superintendent Rick Brown said he is looking at all options, but the outlook for road salt this winter is not good.

The ice storm in February all but depleted the city's salt store.

"We may have 20 tons in a stockpile. That might take care of one (winter storm) if we are really conservative," Brown said.

"What's really going to hurt is the citizens of Harrisburg are used to having the streets cleared, and that is not going to be the case this year, the way it looks."

Calcium chloride is a pretreatment that melts snow as it falls and Brown said that is available locally. It is not nearly as effective as salt in large storms and if snow is preceded by rain, it can wash the treatment away. The city has a stockpile of cinders left over from last year that might last a few storms. Cinders provide traction, but do not do much to melt snow.

The problem

"The problem we've got now is there is an apparent shortage of salt and the price of salt is more than double. Last year it was $42.12 a ton and now it is $84.24 a ton. Other counties are telling me it is $120 a ton," Saline County Highway Department Engineer Jeff Jones said.

The Saline County Highway Department buys a winter's supply of salt to use on county highways and to sell at cost as needed to the township road commissioners, few of whom have storage bins to keep stockpiles. Jones had placed an order for 260 tons of salt and was waiting for it to arrive by barge in Mt. Vernon, Ind., where the county workers pick it up by the semi tractor-trailer load.

Then, early this week, Jones received an ominous letter from the seller, the North American Salt Company.

"Up until this week we thought everything was hunky-dory," Jones said.

The company's salt is from mines in Cote Blanche, La., and hurricanes have affected production of salt, which has driven the price up.

Not only that, but there is limited barge availability, according to the letter from North American Salt Company. Through October, the company is shipping salt to the upper Mississippi River region that freezes during the winter. The letter indicates other customers will receive salt shipments "as quickly as possible."

Currently, the county has about 75 tons, enough salt for intersections, hills and curves for one storm.

"If we had one more major snow, we would run completely out," Jones said.

The county buys salt by placing a bid through a state contract. Jones said the shortage apparently has caused salt companies to sell only through state contracts and not directly to municipalities. Municipalities cannot get on the state contract, Jones said.

It is unknown whether the county's salt order will arrive by the time of the first snow.

If so, the 260 tons will be available for sale to the townships as it always is. If that supply runs low, Jones said the county will have to use a rationing system. If the shipment does not arrive, the county will likely not have salt to distribute.

"If we get the salt we ordered we will be in very good shape this year, other than it has cost us twice as much," Jones said.

As for whether municipalities can get salt, that is an unknown.

"We're all in this thing together. We will make a certain amount of our salt available to the city (of Harrisburg) as well," Jones said.

However, the county may not have enough to distribute to all municipalities in the county.

Luckily, Eldorado Street Department Superintendent J.B. James is confident the city has enough salt to last an average winter. He stocked up on salt at the end of last winter.

"We've still got enough to get through a couple of storms this winter," James said.

He has made numerous calls to order salt and as of Thursday, was unsuccessful. He said he is awaiting his calls to be returned. Last winter's unpredictability convinced James to place an extra order.

"We were prepared for last year. As long as it's not a winter like we had in the '70s we'll be OK," James said.

Cinders

Salt melts snow and cinders provide some traction. Cinders may be in as short a supply, if not more so, than salt.

"Cinders may not be available, either. We've not been able to get cinders free of charge reliably for four years now," Jones said.

The cinders were available free of charge from the Lake of Egypt Power Plant south of Marion as a byproduct the plant was eager to be rid of. Now there is a demand for cinders.

"They are using them to make asphalt roof shingles as an aggregate. A company has contracted to take all the cinders the power plant produces," Jones said.

There are enough cinders stockpiled at the county for this winter and they will be rationed as the county looks for another supplier. The cost is in the transportation of cinders so it may not be practical to drive to another power plant 200 miles away to get them.

While the county is provided the salt through a bid with the state, Illinois Department of Transportation does not make much use of cinders, Jones said.

"One option we used years ago that we may have to return to is sand. But none of the abrasives are as effective as salt," Jones said.

Townships

The township road commissioners rely on the county's storage for salt and have traditionally acquired their own cinders from the power plant. Commissioners are taking a wait-and-see approach, knowing if there is a major storm they may not be able to clear the roads as quickly.

"I don't know how I'm going to get cinders," Harrisburg Township Road Commissioner Bob Smith said.

"If I can't get cinders and salt is in a shortage, what are we going to do now?"

Smith said he dug into the township's cinder pit and said there are about 10 backhoe buckets of cinder and salt mix.

"That's all we've got. The materials we need are not available," Smith said.

Still, he is confident the roads will be made passable -- somehow.

"It's all about traction. We will do whatever we have to do to get people up and down the road," Smith said.

Carrier Mills Township Road Commissioner Lee Kidd does not appear to be overly concerned.

"You don't know from one winter to the next what the weather is going to be," Kidd said.

Kidd plans to rely on the county's materials and advice.

Mountain Township Road Commissioner John Parkinson expects the public will be disappointed in road conditions if there is a major snow, but doesn't know what to do except use the materials that are available and scrape away the snow.

"Last winter I did all the roads the complete length. For sure, I like to do the stops or hills people struggle up and down, that school buses struggle to get up with kids," Parkinson said.

Salt prices alone prohibit him from providing those services this year.

"I'm not able to buy a lot of it, if it is available, I'm afraid," Parkinson said.

Parkinson is making calls about cinders, hoping to find a solution.

"Maybe the public does need to be aware not as much salt is available, so not as much will be applied, depending on the weather," Jones said.

-- DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.