Hit by frequent small snowfalls, dozens of Allegheny County municipalities are scrambling to keep road salt stockpiles full and roads clear. In Moon, the problem became so severe last week that officials warned motorists that crews would be using salt sparingly, mixing it with other materials to avoid draining the township supply, township Manager Greg Smith said. More salt arrived Thursday, but by then the point had been sufficiently made. About 100 Allegheny County townships and boroughs get their road salt through a buying alliance overseen by the South Hills Council of Governments. Seven of the county's eight councils of governments plus Peters, Washington County, belong to the alliance, which buys from Chicago-based Morton Salt. Before being replenished, only one of the company's three local stockpiles — storing 30,000 to 40,000 tons each — remained full, said Lou Gorski, South Hills Council executive director. Of the other two, one was empty and the other low. As of Thursday, only four days in January passed without some snowfall, according to the National Weather Service. Since the season began Oct. 1, a total of 32.4 inches of snow had fallen, about 7 inches above normal. "There has been a tremendous demand placed on all the local stockpiles for salt," Gorski said. "This has been a pretty severe winter. The crews were out sometimes more than once a day. Every time the trucks go out and the salt is used, it's a tremendous drain on resources." Morton spokesman Joseph Wojtonik said the company is buying salt from competitors to replenish stockpiles until its own supplies arrive. Salt is being brought in by rail from Canada and Erie and by barge from Louisiana and the Bahamas. Icy river conditions have delayed barge shipments, he said. "We're doing the best we can to get product in place. It's been an extraordinary winter this year in your area," he said. "Our main focus is keeping the high priority customers supplied." Allegheny County had enough salt to supply a few small municipalities that had run out, said Joe Olczak, deputy director of maintenance in the county public works department "We had stocked up previous to the winter and had all of our domes filled, so we were ahead of the game before we started," he said. "We anticipated more snow this year." Olczak said the county has spent about $375,000 on salt this winter, "way ahead" of last year. "From our perspective, it's better to get six to seven inches at a time, plow it and treat it rather than get the nuisance snow," he said. "If I get an inch or I get six inches, there's a difference in man hours, but the difference in salt use is relatively small." State road crews use about 300 tons of material per lane mile, regardless of how much snow falls, said Dick Skrinjar, a spokesman for PennDOT District 11, which covers Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties. On a four-lane road, that's 1,200 tons per mile. Skrinjar said the agency started the season with 34,256 tons of salt, 17,684 tons of antiskid and 77,756 gallons of magnesium chloride. He couldn't say how much material is remaining, but PennDOT replenishes its salt stock throughout the season. "We won't run out of salt," he said. In the first two months of this winter, PennDOT used as much salt as it did in either of the past two winters. Pittsburgh has plenty of salt, but it's over budget, Guy Costa, city public works director, said. "We budgeted a million dollars for rock salt," Costa said. "But we've already spent $1.3 million. We have enough salt for another 18 inches of snow, but any more snow, we'll need more salt." In past years leftover money from the rock salt budget went into road repairs. This year, Costa said, the department is dipping into the road repair budget to buy more salt. Smith said Moon used 1,634 tons of salt last month, more than twice the 710 tons used last January. The township's public works staff has put in 511 hours of overtime, compared to 733 over all of last year. The overtime and materials have put the township's January winter maintenance bill at close to $74,000. Road supplies already have reached 65 percent of the township's overall 2003 snow removal supply budget, Smith said. In Upper St. Clair, Manager Douglas Watkins said the municipality has used about 3,500 tons more than the 4,500 it ordinarily uses. Penn Hills, meanwhile, already has used 8,000 tons of road salt, with two months of winter to go. Penn Hills generally buys between 6,000 and 8,000 tons of road salt at a cost of more than $200,000 each year. Officials now may have to make up for the extra spending elsewhere in the municipal budget. "Every time we get a delivery for 500 tons, we put in an order for another 500 tons so we're always in front of it," said Penn Hills Public Works Director Moe Rayan. With surplus salt from last winter still on hand, Shaler gambled — buying just 4,000 tons of salt this winter — and lost. The township already has used 6,000 tons, equal to an average winter. Shaler now will have to dip into its contingency fund to cover the extra costs. "I ordered less this year," Shaler Manager Tim Rogers said. "It's a law of averages, and it finally catches up with you. We had a lot of mild winters, and this year whacked us." Although Cranberry did not cut back on its $176,000 salt budget, Manager Jerry Andree said, "The way it looks now, we'll blow our salt budget for this year." But that is preferable to the alternative. "Nothing's worse in any of these municipalities' minds than to run out of salt at the beginning of a storm," he said. "You're just defenseless."

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