UPDATED: Montclair Faces Shortage Of Road Salt

With roads iced over, and possibly more snow on the way this weekend, Montclair is lacking one vital wintertime weapon: salt.

Township Manager Marc Dashield is reporting that, because salt supplies are low, both Montclair and Essex County have been forced to take a different approach to this week's storm.

In a report to Township officials, Dashield said Wednesday that: "With low salt supplies, the salt must be used most efficiently. Consequently, plowing operations will be delayed until the ground temperatures rise. Plowing now will only create black ice which will require salting. Further, salting now will not be effective due to the rain. With the expected freeze over this evening we need to conserve our salt supplies."

Essex County’s salt domes are full, but even the county has been getting less salt for the roads than ordered, said Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. And the ice storm was a difficult one, he said, taking more time and more salt to clear the roads.

"We're getting more and more salt in each and every day, we got another delivery yesterday. By the end of the week our dome should be full," he said Thursday. "We asked for 1800 tons and what happens is one day they give us 200, one day they give us 700 because they have to provide it throughout the state.

"Hopefully this weather will stop," he said. "Our roads are in very good shape. I think our people did a great job on our county roads."

But the salt isn’t the only concern. The storms are wreaking havoc on budgets for snow removal. DiVincenzo said the county has already spent $2.9 million and there’s just $700,000 left in the budget. “There’s no question that we’ll go over the budget. There’s still six weeks (of winter) to go,” he said.

During this unusually snowy winter, many entities all across the country have turned to materials other than salt to melt the snow on streets.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, for example, workers use salt as well as some food juice from sugar beets when temperatures plummet to around 0 or below.

Closer to home, in Bergen County, officials have turned to pickle juice as their new snow melter.

The green salty liquid costs only a fraction of the price of rock salt.

“We actually pre-spray the properties, the sidewalks, the parking lots as a preventative before the snow is uncontrollable,” Bergen County Public Works Director Joe Crifasi told CBS.

Other New Jersey counties are facing shortages as well.

Madison's supply of the ice-melter has shrunk to 20 tons this week, well short of the 60 to 80 tons typically spread during a winter storm. The borough ordered 400 tons of the white stuff a week ago from a Morris County co-op at $70.50 per ton, but only received 40 tons.

Madison has been blending in some abrasive grit in order to stretch its supply of salt further.

Montclair officials expected a delivery of salt Wednesday—as did Essex County—and neither happened.

Montclair is hoping for a shipment today.

In general,the Salt Institute in Alexandria, Virginia recommends that towns order salt by mid summer for summer and fall delivery and that they keep in storage an estimated average winter's salt requirements.

Montclair Patch will be following up on this story today to find out exactly how much salt Montclair has on hand.