Officials confident in Iowa's road salt supply

Steve Hansen, Le Mars public works superintendent, has 500 tons of road salt stored in three different locations around the city. Hansen is "pretty sure" it will be enough to get the city through the coming winter. Seen here is about one-third of the road salt supply. [Click to enlarge]

Le Mars and the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) officials said they have enough salt to keep roads clear of snow this winter despite a severe shortage nationwide.

Steve Hansen, Le Mars public works superintendent, said he has 500 tons of salt on hand, which he's pretty certain will get the city through the winter.

However, he said, there are no guarantees.

But because last winter was the fourth worst on record for snowfall amounts, Hansen said, he doesn't expect the same this year.

Dennis Burkheimer, IDOT's winter operations administrator, agreed.

"Knowing what we do now, we're hoping this winter is not as bad as last," he said.

Burkheimer is confident IDOT also has enough salt -- 248,000 tons -- on hand.

"We're full now, and we do have additional salt we can buy," he said.

The reason for the salt shortage is mines like those in Kansas and Louisiana, where Iowa and other states like Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska get most of their road salt, were deplenished by demands last year, Burkheimer said.

"They aren't quite able to recover," he said. "They haven't been able to replenish."

For example, last winter IDOT used 100,000 tons more salt than average and Illinois used 900,000 more tons, Burkheimer said.

"You start talking millions of tons more and it's hard to recover," he said.

Salt prices are also rising as the demand surpasses the supply.

"There's no guarantees out there, and if they can find it they're going to pay for it," Hansen said. "It's going to be costly."

But both Burkheimer and Hansen ordered their salt early, when there was enough to go around, and when prices were lower.

Hansen said he always contacts his suppliers around the first of July and gets his prices locked in.

Burkheimer said he orders in April.

This year Hansen paid about $50 a ton for salt compared to the current price of $80 to $90 a ton, he said.

Burkheimer attributes rising prices to transportation costs to bring the salt by truck, ship and rail from other mines within the United States and outside.

"Salt is widely available all over the world," he said. "Transportation costs to get it to Iowa are cost prohibitive."

Like Le Mars and IDOT, other cities in Plymouth County are in good shape when it comes to salt supplies.

Gary Horton, Akron public works director, said he purchases salt from IDOT, and if the city should run a little short like last year he will use more of a mixture of sand and liquid calcium chloride.

Liquid calcium chloride is made from natural underground brine deposits that are processed into an odorless liquid. The solution attracts moisture so when applied to snowy and icy roads, it works as a deicer, according to The Dow Chemical Company.

"At least you don't have to use nearly as much of that," Horton said. "A lot of towns don't use salt."

That's the case in Remsen and also for Plymouth County roads.

"It's not affecting us too much," said Tom Rohe, county engineer of the salt shortage. "We use the liquid calcium chloride to keep the sand from freezing."

Despite salt shortage problems elsewhere, drivers on Iowa roads can feel comfortable in their safety this winter, Burkheimer said.

"We feel confident we have sufficient supplies so it won't have an impact on our roadways," Burkheimer said.