Bergen, Passaic County Towns Conserving Salt Due To Morton Shortage
GARFIELD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - Clearing roads and walks is going to be a whole lot harder for some towns in New Jersey because all the snow is taking a toll and salt supplies are running low.
As CBS2's Christine Sloan reported, Pacific Avenue in Garfield, New Jersey, was covered in ice Wednesday evening—and it's not the only street in town that looks like that.
"It's been real bad for the last couple of days for sure," Luisa Rodriguez said.
"They come with the plows, but nobody is salting here," Donna Volosin said.
But the lack of salting isn't the public works employees' fault; their supervisor says they've been waiting for Morton salt to make a delivery since January 26.
Several other Bergen County towns say Morton hasn't fulfilled their orders either.
In Garfield, they're conserving salt.
"We're getting a lot of complaints from residents. This last storm was an ice storm and we have to ration the salt," public works employee Sam Garofalo said.
The city's salt dome sits practically empty, Sloan reported.
"(And what does that mean?) That means if we have two snow storms, three snow storms or an ice storm, we're frozen. I'll be in trouble soon, I'll be in trouble," Garofalo said.
A Morton salt spokesperson said road salt orders are have dramatically increased because of severe weather and that "logistics can become a challenge when the majority of customers want salt delivered at the same time."
Residents say there should be no excuses and that this is a public safety issue.
"I am really concerned. It's dangerous, it could be very dangerous," Volosin said.
The situation is much the same in Passaic County, which relies on another company. Another salt dome in Bloomingdale sits nearly empty as well.
Salt companies are required to make deliveries within three days of an order and Morton said it's working quickly to get salt to towns.
A Passaic County roads spokesperson said third party trucks hired by salt companies are working on the roads instead of making deliveries. The Morton spokesperson confirms that, saying local and state governments are hiring the same trucks they use for plowing and that can deplete the supply of trucks.
