Will you have enough salt this winter?

Last year’s heavy snows and high salt demands left both customers and salt miners tapped out at the end of the winter. In many cases, mines were loading trucks right from the mine skip. The supply pipeline from mine to end user was virtually empty by March 2008. Thoughtful, politically-sensitive public officials knew they didn’t want to repeat their experience of flirting with the disaster of running out of salt in any future winter. Citizens credit their elected officials with successful scrambling in the face of record snowfalls, but officials don’t want to test the public’s patience – and invite questions of their administrative competence – by scrambling two years in a row.

To the question “will you have enough salt this winter?” the only honest answer is: it’s up to Mother Nature. While weather is unpredictable, winter is a certainty. Weather is a risk – for roadway agencies and for salt companies. Our collective job is to lower the risks for our customers – the driving public and our highway-dependent economy.

There are two primary strategies to prevent a salt shortfall: expand local storage and employ Sensible Salting.

For more than 30 years, the Salt Institute has urged its highway salt customers to take pre-season delivery of one full average year’s requirements. That’s advice you can take to the bank. Having salt on hand is an insurance policy against running out. Arapahoe County, CO has 300% of its average annual amount on hand, under roof. They sleep well at night. Bid early. Take early delivery. Then when winter weather hits, you’ll be ready.

Practice Sensible Salting. Train your operators to put down only the minimum amount of salt required to keep your roads safe and passable.
Buy automatic spreaders if you don’t have them already. Calibrate every spreader at least once each year. Sensible Salting stretches salt supplies.