WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A nationwide road salt shortage has hit the Upper Valley, with some towns feeling the impact more than others.
Road crews in affected communities, including Hartford, Royalton, Fairlee, Bradford and Corinth, are working to maintain snow-covered streets with limited melting resources from their main supplier, Cargill, a multinational corporation based in Minnesota.
The harsh winter last year is part of the reason why Cargill resources were reduced, and another harsh winter this year meant road salt was in even higher demand, said Tim Barrett, manager of Burlington-based Barrett Trucking Company, which delivers Upper Valley salt on behalf of Cargill.
“With the high demand they had last year, there just wasn’t enough time to start to build up everybody’s stockpile,” Barrett said Thursday by phone.
Cargill is currently working to “move as much salt as quickly as possible,” spokeswoman Emily Tangeman wrote in a Friday email. All salt producers have been impacted by the increase in demand, prompted by early winter weather across many states.
With the status of future deliveries unclear, many towns have had to restrict usage to priority areas such as bus routes, steep hills, tight corners and heavily traveled areas. The shortage also has towns increasing their reliance on sand, which improves traction but lacks salt’s melting qualities.
In Bradford, Class 2 highways — which go from town to town — take priority, said Bradford highway foreman Phil Page. High traffic and high speed roads also require extra attention, with an eye kept on hills and corners.
“Most of our pavement needs salt because it’s hard to pick and choose because everybody’s a taxpayer,” said Page. “Everybody’s wanting the same service.”
Last weekend’s big storm, which dropped 18 inches in some parts of the Upper Valley, did not create a crisis in Bradford. Page described it as “nice snow for plowing.”
But the lack of salt becomes more apparent with freezing temperatures.
Amid the shortage, Bradford is depending more on sand, which mixed with snow is prone to get packed down and create potholes, said Page. The sand mixture holds the snow and ice in place longer.
The temperature Thursday was -10 degrees Fahrenheit with half an inch of snow on the ground, Page said. Taxpayers have been understanding of the situation.
“We’re trying to get it scraped off and cleaned up. A typical idea would be to put a little bit of salt,” said Page.
The town, which relies on Cargill, did receive a salt delivery last week, though less than it had ordered. Page made a 100-ton order, but just 20 tons were delivered, he said.
As days lengthen, the sun is starting to help, said Page.
Corinth is essentially out of salt, Lee Porter, the town’s road commissioner, said by phone. The town received its last truck load from Cargill months ago. When it comes to finding another supplier, they have not had much luck.
Porter said he planned on getting more salt from a nearby town with an excess supply, but declined to name his source.
In the meantime, steep roads, heavily traveled roads and bus routes have taken priority. The road crew is up at 4 a.m. every day making sure the roads are safe for school buses, and Porter said he has no concern for safety as of now.
Hartford is not yet out of salt, but it does not appear that they can get more when the time comes, Assistant Public Works Director Jeremy Delisle said.
At the end of December, the department placed an order for 1,000 tons of salt. A week later, they received 100 tons, and nothing more since then.
For perspective, Delisle said 100 tons was enough to salt the town’s entire network of paved roads two times. He is currently researching liquid alternatives.
Royalton also has yet to run out of salt completely, though there was a close call last month, Adam Smith, the highway department foreman, said by phone.
On Jan. 7, Smith ordered 70 tons of salt and received 54. On Jan. 18, he ordered another 100, then on Wednesday another 70. Those 170 tons remain unfulfilled.
To preserve resources, Smith is using just 200 pounds of salt per lane mile, falling below the State of Vermont’s recommended 250 pounds per lane mile.
An emergency meeting of the Selectboard may be called to discuss alternate options if the salt orders do not come in, Smith said.
Fairlee currently has 20 tons of salt, and is not running low based on its needs. However, it may need to tap into sand resources depending on the weather, Road Commissioner Peter Berger said. The town has a stockpile of sand available as needed and is ready to depend on it as an alternative style of treatment.
Roads with a severe slope take priority when it comes to using remaining salt, Berger said. School bus routes are also important areas to treat. Two particular roads that frequently require salting are Lake Morey Road and Terry Hill Road.
In terms of public safety, he is not concerned. Berger said the town will do everything necessary to keep the roads open.
People in Fairlee drive cautiously, Police Chief Wayne Briggs said by phone. He hasn’t heard of any car accidents related to winter weather, besides a slide-off situation earlier this month where the driver was able to get back on the road independently.
Though Briggs considers road conditions a little worse than normal, he said the roads are clear enough to travel on, assuming people drive based on the conditions.
State roads maintained by the Vermont Agency of Transportation have not been impacted by the shortage, Ernie Patnoe, VTrans’ director of district maintenance, said. The agency has enough salt in stock, and has never run out before, said Patnoe.
VTrans has contracts with several suppliers, including American Rock Salt Co., Apalachee LLC, Compass Mineral America Inc., Eastern Salt Company and Morton Salt— all of which expire in 2030, according to the Vermont Agency of Administration website.
The nationwide salt shortage appears to be more acute in Vermont than in New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire Department of Transportation experienced a two-week lapse in road salt earlier this month when poor weather across the country increased demand for product from Morton Salt, which is based in Kansas, and is one of the companies the state relies on for road salt, NH DOT spokeswoman Jen Lane said Friday by phone.
With some suppliers, orders must be placed weeks in advance, which does not always account for unpredictable weather patterns, said Lane.
Roads were not impacted because DOT was able to transport salt from other districts in the meantime. Since then, there have not been delivery delays with Morton, Lane said.
Hanover, which relies on Morton for its supply, is cutting back on salt use, Jim Cray, the town’s highway and utilities superintendent, said.
The town currently has 1,000 tons of Morton salt, some of which carried over from last winter.
“The tonnage sounds like a lot, but we’ve still got a lot of winter left,” said Cray.