Central and northern Pennsylvania municipalities say they’re struggling with a nationwide road salt shortage.
Long stretches of cold weather this winter meant many municipalities needed to salt roads, even for small snowfall events and in places that don’t usually have snow. That’s according to a press release about the salt shortage from the American Rock Salt company, which supplies several counties in Pennsylvania. That company says historic demand is impacting salt mining companies in the United States and abroad.
Timothy Nebgen is PennDOT’s Press Officer for District 2, which covers parts of central and north central Pennsylvania.
“Currently, PennDOT has enough salt to get through the next several winter events," Nebgen said. "We're also using anti-skid in addition to salt due to ice and colder temperatures.”
In St. Marys, Steve Samick, the Public Works Street Superintendent, said they’ve had to mix salt with sand to ration supplies. The city is expecting a salt delivery later this week.
“Hopefully that should take us through the rest of the winter," Samick said.
Several other municipalities, including Patton Township in Centre County, said they’re also rationing and aren’t sure when they’ll get their next delivery.
