A salt shortage could make it difficult to keep future ice and snow off East Lansing’s roads.
January and February’s streak of snow showers has taken a toll on the city’s 3,300-ton salt supply, which is used to break up ice and snow.
Weather leaves E.L's salt supply running low
Todd Sneathen, East Lansing’s director of public works, said the city has enough salt to last through two snowstorms.
But with more salt not expected for a week, road conditions are increasingly dependent on an unpredictable source: Mother Nature.
“It all depends on what the weather is like,” Sneathen said. “It’s all going to depend on the temperature and how much snow we get.”
A snowy January has left the city’s salt supplier, Detroit Salt Co., unable to meet demand, said Angela Mabin, East Lansing’s public service administrator.
“We’ve had a lot of small amounts of snow that have been continuous,” Mabin said. “We’ve had trucks out regularly.”
In the past five years, 3,300 tons has been the average amount of salt the city uses each winter, Mabin said. One ton of salt costs $33, adding up to more than $105,000 so far this year.
But a snowy January and February has depleted its supply ahead of schedule, Mabin said.
“It’s been an unusual winter,” Mabin said. “We’ve used most of our supply order by mid-February.”
Despite an inadequate amount of salt, the city hasn’t seen the amount of accidents increase, said Juli Liebler, East Lansing deputy police chief.
“I don’t think it’s been a problem,” Liebler said. “They’re still able to do what they need to do to get the roads clear.”
That means being selective with its salt use, Sneathen said. For now, the city is focusing salt use on intersections and hills in East Lansing.
“If we have two or more snowstorms we could be in trouble,” Sneathen said. “It’s more difficult to stop ice from building up on the roads and get down to bare dry pavement.”
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Ashley Beavers, a marketing junior, said last week’s snowfall slowed her commute from her apartment at Chandler Crossings to campus.
“It made the commute a lot longer,” Beavers said. “It’s nerve-wracking because it’s not just your driving skills you have to worry about when you’re driving in those kind of conditions, you have to worry about everyone else around you and whether their car is equipped to handle road conditions like that.”
Mabin said the city has begun using liquid salt, which is widely available. But with only a few of the city’s trucks equipped to use the liquid solution, solid salt is needed.
“It’s an issue of supply and demand,” Mabin said.
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