Bad winter causing salt shortage

BURLINGTON, Vt., Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Local governments throughout the Midwest and New England say they are running out of road salt because of this year's harsh winter conditions and heavy snows.

Areas across those regions received repeated periods of storm warnings and with so many municipalities needing salt, that suppliers can't get the shipments out quick enough, The New York Times said Monday.

"It's supply and demand," the president of the Salt Institute, a nonprofit trade association, Richard L. Hanneman, said. "We're scrambling."

Market logistics prompted many local governments to turn to smaller suppliers that charge as much as 70 percent more than their larger rivals.

The weather created a much greater demand this year, with some Midwest areas using nearly seven times the salt this winter when compared to last year.

One supplier to the Vermont area said the weather not only increases demand but also delays shipments with bad roads and heavy ice on the Great Lakes creating problems.

Many areas in the Northeast get snow well into April, making the road ahead bad indeed.

"There's still a lot of winter left," one public works director told the Times.