It’s treacherous driving on Syracuse hills as the record snowfall turns steep roads into ski slopes. Many municipalities across Onondaga and other nearby counties have not received shipments of salt from their state contractor to cut through the ice below.
“Our contract says it has to be three days or less,” said Jim Cheyne President of Oneida County Highway Association. “And the problem is we got all this weather that’s been coming back-to-back-to-back and you know we’re pretty close to running out.”
Cheyne said salt shortages are normal but this year it has started much earlier than previous years. By mid-January, it seemed no city or town would escape the heavy winter storms sweeping across CNY. It’s to the point that New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency last week.
“I mean, this is the worst weather we’ve had in a long time, a sort of sustained cold that requires constant salt on the roads.” Hochul said.
Cheyne noticed one difference besides the change from mild to severe winter storms, which was the state’s decision to change contractors from longtime vendor Cargill to American Rock Salt (ARS). On its website, it boasts being the largest rock salt mine in the country, capable of pulling out 18,000 tons of salt daily.
For Cheyne, who oversees over three thousand miles of highways and roads the new vendor poses a challenge, “American Rock Salt is in [the] Rochester area which is almost two hours from here for delivery.”
It’s more than inconvenient by comparison, he said when, “Cargill, which used to deliver to us, they actually have a storage facility eight miles from us, so if we were running low, we would have to pay a little bit more, but we would go get it.”
Most companies rely on forecasts from the National Weather Service. Meteorologists predicted a snowy and cold winter as early as November. Realizing reserves would be quickly taxed, Cheyne said he reached out to nearby municipalities to coordinate sharing any existing surpluses but they, too, were facing the same shortages.
In a recent news conference, Governor Hochul brushed aside thoughts that municipalities were obligated to go to ARS for salt supplies.
“They have no limitations on them on where they can go,” she explained to reporters that cities can pay whatever they can afford, “It's what the market will bear right now.”
Cheyne said when he went back to Cargill, they gave him what they could spare, but that only lasted two weeks.
“So that's gone,” he said, but remaining determined, “I am in the process of talking to other vendors. I'm actually waiting for a call back right now.”
As for getting more supplies from ARS, he said, “My secretary has been calling every single day, asking, ‘Hey, where's our salt? We’re dangerously low, we need our salt." When he talked to other New York highway superintendents he said, “they can't even get through to American Rock Salt. Other superintendents said they've called, and all of a sudden someone will answer and they hang up.”
American Rock Salt released a statement on the third of February, that said it’s, “been working diligently to compensate for the high demand for rock salt," adding that it has opened reserve stockpiles and purchased new equipment to speed up the mining process.
Governor Hochul was empathetic towards the company, “We've had years where they've had to lay off workers at American Rock Salt because the weather was very calm, mild,” she recalled in her tenure as a public servant, then reminding everyone of CNY’s reputation for extreme weather. “You have to learn how to adjust to the season, it's very unpredictable.”
Meanwhile Oneida and other counties will ration their emergency reserves and wait for American Rock Salt to deliver on its commitment.