Salt of the earth

Salt traveling thousands of miles by ship from the Mexican coast and Chile and by rail from mines in upstate New York have helped make snow-covered Virginia roads safer this winter.

And while area public works departments stockpile salt supplies each year in preparation for winters like this, the departments still have had to order more because of this year’s record-breaking snowstorms.

Staunton Public Works Director Tom Sliwoski said he stored salt in recent years in anticipation of the hard winter that finally came.

“I probably bought a couple of hundred tons and put the surplus in sidewalks and paving,’’ said Sliwoski, who said the city budgets about $100,000 per year for salt.

This year, despite Sliwoski’s foresight, the city has had to order more salt, including a request for 400 tons last week, and 200 more this week.

Dave Randall, Waynesboro’s superintendent of public works operations, said the city fills up its salt bin every year.

But because of the heavy snowfall, Waynesboro had to purchase 700 tons more of salt last week.

The Virginia Department of Transportation’s Staunton office started this snow season with 27,500 tons of salt, and was down to 9,000 tons Monday.

VDOT Staunton spokeswoman Sandy Myers said the salt on hand is enough to handle another storm expected today and more salt was being shipped in late Monday.

Myers said it is possible salt will have to be moved around the district depending on the needs of the 11 counties and seven cities.

Much of the salt coming to the Mid-Atlantic states and to agencies such as VDOT is shipped to the Port of Baltimore from Chile and Mexico.

John Coulter, president of the private Rukert Terminals Corp. based at the Port of Baltimore, said his company supplies the state transportation departments in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

While Rukert Terminals accumulates 500,000 to 600,000 tons of salt heading into the winter season, Coulter said his company is now down to 150,000 tons.

“We have nine ships steaming our way,’’ said Coulter, who expects 350,000 tons of salt to arrive over the next couple of weeks.

The salt comes from Chilean rock in Chile, and evaporated sea water from the Cedros Island in Mexico, near California’s Baja Peninsula.

Salt takes 12 to 15 days to be shipped through the Panama Canal and up the Atlantic Coast to Baltimore, America’s 12th largest port in tons of cargo.

Midwestern-based Cargill Deicing steadily has shipped salt to Weyers Cave this winter by rail from its upstate New York mines for distribution to Virginia municipalities.

“It’s been a phenomenal winter with a lot of snow and inclement weather and the use of salt and deicing products has been quite strong,’’ said Mark Klein, a spokesman for Cargill Deicing.

Klein said Cargill Deicing has been working nights and weekends to keep customers supplied.

The amount of salt needed per storm depends on multiple factors, Sliowski said.

“It depends on the type of accumulation and temperatures, there is no rule of thumb,’’ he said. “We try to use our salt judiciously.”

He said salt loses its effectiveness at temperatures of less than 21 degrees.

The current salt price of $82 per ton includes the transportation costs, Sliwoski said.

“A few years ago salt was cheaper,’’ he said.