Delaware businesses stockpile road salt

• Agencies%2C cities stockpiling extra in case of another long%2C cold and snowy season.
• Unlike some agencies%2C DelDOT did not run out of road salt last winter%2C but turned down requests to share its salt stockpile.

After exhausting their supplies of road salt last winter – or coming close – businesses and cities in the region are stockpiling extra in case of another super snowy season.

The Port of Wilmington will import roughly 350,000 metric tons of salt before year's end, and is on pace to handle 800,000 to a million tons of salt this year to meet demands Delaware, South Jersey and the five-county Philadelphia region, said Jeff Koetitz, director of operations for Port Contractors Inc., a materials- and cargo-handling firm.

That's compared to 250,000 tons that passed through the port in 2013. Much of the salt is road-grade, but not all. It comes from Mexico, Egypt, Chile, Spain, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

"Everyone's all hyped up," Koetitz said. "Let's just hope it snows."

Workers at the port last week were unloading a portion of a 40,000-ton shipment from Chile when U.S. Sen. Chris Coons and Delaware Economic Development Director Alan Levin toured the vessel with port officials.

The bulk of the salt was transferred to dump trucks and hauled to Oceanport LLC, a rock salt company in Claymont, for storage, Koetitz said.

"How long can you store salt?" Coons asked.

"A long time – years," replied Michael Evanko, president of Port Contractors. "It does get hard. Sometimes, we have to break it up and crush it."

Chemical Equipment Labs, a salt provider in Marcus Hook, tries to keep about 200,000 tons of salt on hand at most times to supply its customers, which range from apartment buildings to office complexes to landscapers, CEO Edward Morgan said. This year, the company expects to order an additional 500,000 tons during the season, he said.

"The longest we kept several piles was when there was no snow for about three years. That was brutal," Morgan told Coons. "We sold everything we had last year."

Snowfall totals last winter made the record books in many areas, blowing through cities' snow-removal budgets and causing salt shortages when demand exceeded locally available supplies.

The supply chain choked when municipalities around the country tried to simultaneously replenish dwindling stockpiles after successive snow and ice storms. Shipments from salt flats in places such as Chile can take two to three weeks. In some places, ice-clogged rivers blocked the passage of barge traffic.

"In times like last year, they just can't get it in quick enough. There's logistics issues," Morgan said.

The Delaware Department of Transportation benefits from proximity to the Port of Wilmington, when compared with inland DOTs and road-salt customers, officials said.

"Last winter, many states had problems moving the salt to where they needed it," said Jim Westhoff, a DelDOT spokesman.

DelDOT did not run out of road salt, but turned down requests to share its stockpile, worrying about getting too low.

The agency currently has more than 43,150 tons of salt stockpiled, and doesn't have the capacity to store much more. DelDOT is responsible for treating 89 percent of Delaware roadways, and typically uses 13,000 tons of salt during severe storms.

"We have no plans for any considerable increase in the amount of salt we stockpile," Westhoff said. "However, we are working on adding some additional storage capacity in Sussex County, to reduce our travel time if we have an event in Sussex, and need a great deal of road salt there."

Crews at maintenance yards in the three counties are preparing for snow equipment inspections, which begin this week, said Brian Urbanek, assistant director of support services for DelDOT.

Mechanics will be checking the hydraulic lines, headlights, horns and salt spreaders among the elements of 333 snow plows.

Last week, the agency offered equipment operators a chance to brush up on their snow-plowing skills in a computer simulator set up in Dover. More than 120 DelDOT employees participated, in addition to dozens of operators from towns and counties around the state.

With three large displays representing the windshield and windows, the simulator program runs the driver through different storm scenarios. The streetscape varies from urban to rural. Drivers must react quickly to successfully navigate obstacles from poor visibility, to slippery roadways, to darting pedestrians and deer.

"There's lots of things going on out there when we're pushing snow. Cars don't put their turn signals on, or they pull out in front of you. People don't realize this truck doesn't stop on a dime," said Gary Licsko, who plows a route in the Seaford area.

"This is a good training exercise, especially for new operators. But nothing is going to get exactly like the real thing."

Contact Melissa Nann Burke at (302) 324-2329, mburke@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @nannburke.