Salt supplies are slipping across the state, raising concern in municipalities and among contractors as they work to clear roadways amid an active, wintry weather pattern across New York.
“We’re just making sure to have enough,” said Jason Coffin as he worked a job in Mechanicville, in Saratoga County, during Thursday’s snowfall. “We’re not wasting it in certain instances.”
Coffin owns ACA Lawnscape Supply in Valley Falls, in Rensselaer County, which during the winter offers snow removal around the Capital Region. He’s managed to keep a decent supply of salt, but has noticed it becoming harder to find.
“The snow totals aren’t big, but it's constant,” he said. “It’s almost every other day, so that eats up the supply quickly.”
Most of the salt Coffin uses comes from the Port of Coeymans, located along the Hudson River.
“The company that was hauling salt for us said that they can be in and out of the port in 15 minutes,” Coffin said. “Yesterday, more than 60 trucks in line, it took them two or three hours.”
American Rock Salt in Mt. Morris is the world’s largest salt mine. It released a statement on the supply shortages earlier this week.
“This historic demand is due to the long stretch of cold weather events impacting the region where the constantly low temperatures require salting roads for even very small snowfall events,” it read, in part.
The team has worked in the mine 24 hours a day for 101 of the last 113 days, which included several holidays, according to the statement.
“For further context, in 2024 American Rock Salt shipped 1.8 million tons of salt for the entirety of the winter season; this winter through January 2025 alone we have already shipped over 2.1 million tons of salt,” the statement read. “In total, we have mined and shipped more salt so far this winter than all last year.”
Bruce VanGuilder is the manager at Noble ACE Hardware in Glens Falls.
“I have heard from a lot of customers that nobody else has the melters,” he said.
VanGuilder is expecting another shipment of salt heading into the weekend, which is expected to feature more snow.
“We were getting some of the last stuff ACE had in stock,” he said. “I don’t anticipate any issues for the balance of the season but we’re pulling in everything we can.”
Coffin says he’s cautiously optimistic.
“Worst case scenario, and it happened about six or seven years ago, we ended up cutting our supply a little bit with sand just to let it last longer,” he explained. “But from what I’m hearing, they’re still going to be getting some deliveries. It’ll just be not as often.”
Coffin and other contractors have reportedly been told by some suppliers that the state has seized whatever they have left on their lots to fulfill the state’s Department of Transportation’s needs.
A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office told Spectrum News 1 that the state does not have influence or control over salt availability for private contractors.
"Governor Hochul is committed to ensuring all New Yorkers are safe on our roads and highways and we are actively monitoring this situation,” the spokesperson said. “Leaders in local government and the traveling public can rest assured that sufficient supplies of rock salt are available to maintain highway safety this winter through the New York State Office of General Services' centralized contract.”
According to the spokesperson, the administration has been in contact with American Rock Salt to discuss the supply issues and that there are provisions that allows the state to resort to other suppliers.
Municipalities are encouraged to contact the state’s Office of General Services to rectify any problems with ordering and securing rock salt.