Winter weather taxes salt, sand stockpiles

As far as the calendar goes, winter is more than half over. But public works departments around the state aren’t ready to coast through the rest of the season.

With the high number of snowstorms this year, many towns have seen salt-sand piles dwindle to nothing, threatening to leave them without ammunition to fight the next slippery weather.

In Brewer, public works Superintendent Frank Higgins said the city had to dig deep into its coffers to buy extra salt.

“We’re significantly over budget this year,” he said Thursday.

The city has used about 1,400 tons of salt, which it mixes with sifted sand to apply on roads. Brewer also uses liquid calcium chloride, which it sprays onto granular sodium chloride – rock salt – before applying directly to roads in some situations.

The salt mix melts snow at lower temperatures than the traditional salt-sand mix, Higgins said.

Brewer has a contract with Harcros Chemicals of Westbrook to buy salt. So far, Harcros has come through with salt when the city needs it.

Some Maine towns have had trouble getting salt this winter.

Brewer’s sand pile is holding up well, Higgins said.

In Millinocket, Highway Department foreman Bob Williams said the couple of thousand cubic yards the town puts up each year is proving to be enough.

“Downstate got hammered worse,” he said. “We didn’t get the rain and ice,” which require more sand to be applied to roads.

The town of Machias prepares 1,200 cubic yards of salted sand each year, and the pile is getting thin, said Denny Farley of the Public Works Department.

“We’re having more brought in,” he said.

Dexter’s public works director, Mike Delaware, is feeling good about having prepared 5,000 cubic yards of salted sand. “Absolutely,” he said when asked whether it will be enough.

But more salt is being ordered to continue to mix into the sand. Dexter buys from Shurtleff in Portland.

Rockland is part of a consortium that includes Thomaston, Union and Rockport that buys salt together, also from Shurtleff. Public works foreman Colin Emery said the city has used more salt than normal this year.

At the outset of the season, the city had 800 to 900 tons of salt and 2,500 to 3,000 cubic yards of sand.

“I think we’re going to be able to make it,” Emery said. “I’m hoping I won’t have to order again.”

With the sun climbing ever higher this time of year, less salt is needed in the mix to melt snow and ice on roads, he said.

At the same time, Emery observed that the public’s demands have changed over the last few decades, with more people now expecting bare roads to drive to work on the morning after a storm.