BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — It's late January in Western New York, so we know that there's plenty of winter weather ahead, but is there enough rock salt to treat the roads?
"It's making life difficult for all of us," said John Pilato, Highway Superintendent of the Town of Lancaster.
The rock salt shortage is really making it tough on all municipalities. They're now sharing with each other and only salting main roads to preserve supply.
It's because they all use the same supplier, American Rock Salt in Livingston County.
"Usually the turnarounds within 48 hours, we call it in and we're getting our salt...I'm on 8 days," said Pilato.
How is this impacting businesses?
Municipalities get priority, so many businesses are in the same boat here, rationing their supply.
But Vision Lawn Care and Snowplow in the Town of Tonawanda was able to get a delivery in to last them all winter.
"We're doing better than good," said Rocco Guadagna, Owner.
They salt a lot of parking lots at places like grocery stores and offices.
They say getting supply was a matter of being proactive and they found an out-of-town supplier willing to stock them up with more than 60 tons of salt.
"It was a relief," said Guadagna. "So we ordered enough salt to get us through the year and some extra in case someone else needs anything."
Why can't towns pivot like that?
Well, there's a state law standing in their way.
It's called the "Buy American Salt Act", sponsored by then State Senator Tim Kennedy. It requires government agencies to buy salt from an American-sourced salt mine.
Before this, they were able to go across the border to a supplier in Canada.
Local highway superintendents came together, writing a letter asking the state to step in to amend it to the Buy North American Salt Act, so they can include Canada.
"Erie County is the largest county outside of NYC and it is time we stood together as one for our area," writes David Gunner, Town of Aurora Superintendent of Highways.
The plan is to meet with the state and vote on the amendment in February.
Why is there a delay with American Rock Salt?
A spokesperson says demand is high this year.
“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," a spokesperson wrote. "We are operating under the assumption that this strong demand will continue throughout the remainder of the 2025 winter season."
They add that they're working to increase supply including opening reserve stockpiles, buying new underground equipment and construction of more access points, which they say has increased daily production by over 25%.
In 2024, they shipped 1.8 million tons of salt for the entire winter, this winter through January 2025 alone they say they've already shipped over 2.1 million tons of salt.
They say they're in contact with highway departments to meet their needs.
