SALT LAKE CITY – States in the Midwest are running out of the salt used to melt ice on roadways, and a Utah business stepping in to stave off salt shortages is struggling to deliver due to backed up roadways and water routes.
Redmond Minerals in Redmond is supplying rock salt to 28 states, and officials with the company said they have plenty of salt; the struggle is getting it delivered through stoppages and delays caused by the winter weather.
Doug Anderson is the de-icing products team leader at Redmond, and he said they are shipping a great deal of salt.
“Right now, there’s a real shortage of rail cars and the infrastructure that we would need to get that kind of volume back there,” he said. “These customers are looking for tens of thousands of tons of product, and obviously that becomes a bit of a challenge if you’re just shipping it a little bit at a time, a truck load at a time.”
The salt supplied by Redmond is in demand because it works on roads in conditions where temperatures are as low as zero degrees.
