Salt stress: Road salt prices higher as winter looms

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Budget-busting road salt prices are leaving municipal officials in the Snow Belt hoping for a mild winter.

Salt supplies are tight on the heels of a harsh winter last year that depleted reserves, leaving many localities in the Northeast and Great Lakes to pay prices ranging from 5 percent higher to almost double.

The increases are frustrating to local officials who are locked into tight budgets. Some highway superintendents say they could choose to make their salt supplies last by mixing in cheaper materials, such as sand. And others say it could force them to defer other road projects.

Production issues at two major North American salt mines have contributed to the tight supplies.