Cowley County Engineer Dale Steward has lost track of how many times he has called the Hutchinson Salt Company since four winter storms in December put a huge dent in the county’s supply of highway salt.
“The salt company won’t even schedule anything to deliver,” Steward said. “They just say to continue to call us about it three days a week. I think they’re getting tired of talking to me.”
The Hutchinson Salt Company’s main product is highway salt for inclement weather. Clients include the states of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois and the city of Chicago.
“We’ve been very fortunate the last couple of weeks we haven’t had to use anything. We’ve still got a little salt from KDOT,” Steward said.
Allen Grunder, Kansas Department of Transportation area engineer, said he and Steward worked out some contingency plans in case the weather turns bad again before the county can restock some salt.
The state agency works with the Hutchinson firm to keep the state transportation system open, and at times may move to the head of the line in order to do that. The state takes care of the state and U.S. routes, the county takes care of the county and the cities take care of their streets, Grunder said.
He estimated he has 500 tons of salt on hand for the three counties in his district.
“The domes are pretty well filled up,” he said. “We’re in good shape.”
The county has three road districts and each district is responsible for over 100 miles of road to clear. It takes approximately 100 tons of salt to cover each district, said road foreman Jim Thomas. Road crews were out three days in a row after the first storm hit in December, he said.
Road crews have been using some other materials with sand and substituting that for salt. “If we can get sand on a road it will do as much good as anything,” Steward said. “But when it gets really cold and you try to spread sand the moisture will freeze up on the spreaders. Salt keeps the sand from freezing and helps thaw (ice) on the roads.
“We just got into the new year. Our budget is in good shape as far as buying materials. It’s just the availability right now is a little stilted,” he said. “It’s just a supply and demand thing.”
Grunder said he’s been mixing a little less salt with the sand as well and the mixture didn’t affect the operation.
The mine Hutchinson was unable to produce salt when one of the December storms hit there and the company lost power. “Our people went out and loaded from their stock piles so we could get salt,” Grunder said. “So then they got behind. Everybody needed salt.”
While a lot of people enjoy the snow, Grunder doesn’t. “It just means more work for us,” he said.
The forecast isn’t calling for any measurable snow in the near future. But in Kansas, you can’t really tell what’s going to happen, Steward said.
“We had a heck of a thunderstorm the other night. I thought we were having a tornado,” he said.
Salt was first discovered in Reno County in 1887 which led to the first salt-processing plants west of the Mississippi River. In 1923, the Carey Salt Company opened the first and only salt mine in Hutchinson, which then produced rock salt. That mine is still in use today and is now operated by the Hutchinson Salt Company. Cargill and Morton also have evaporative salt plants in Hutchinson, according to information available on the Internet.
