Deicing Roads and Interstates Today

Deicing roads  is a crucial aspect of winter maintenance for municipalities and transportation departments. The use of bulk salt, also known as rock salt, is a common and cost-effective method for deicing roads during winter months (1). The salt helps to melt ice and snow, making travel safer for drivers. In recent years, there has… Read more »

Midwest Salt LLC is OPEN and ready to serve as an Essential Business

Midwest Salt LLC is OPEN and ready to serve as an Essential Business We recognize that with the constantly changing COVID-19 situation, this is an uncertain and challenging time for everyone. Midwest Salt remains fully operational and will be open for the foreseeable future. You can count on us! Our supply chain team has already… Read more »

UPDATE: Midwest Salt at SIMA 2019

Barge of bulk rock salt

Tony Johnson, Owner of Midwest Salt, contributed to a discussion at SIMA 2019 about salt availability and how the salt market works and what suppliers do to avoid a salt shortage. As a veteran salt supplier, Tony explained the salt supply chain from mine to truck spreader and every salt logistics aspect in between that… Read more »

Winter ’18-’19, Is This a Salt Shortage?

When the snow and the ice arrives there is one tried and true way to keep travelers safe – salting the roads.  There is no more effective means to melting away icy conditions than salt.  The problem facing those in charge of protecting drivers during this long winter of 2018-19 is a shortage in road… Read more »

October Events 2018

Upcoming Events for October 2018 GreenTown is happening in Joliet on October 26th: https://www.greentownconference.com/ ISAWWA Water Efficiency Committee is hosting a half day seminar (for Edu credit) on the latest in Water Loss Control – will include an update from IDNR as well as case studies and a panel discussion from location communities and how… Read more »

Weather Changes and Impacts on Our Industry

Snowy Road

According to scientists worldwide, climate change is happening now. The cause or causes are still to being examined and debated. The EPA conducted studies based in regions in the US and how the future weather patterns will affect each area. They cover the area overview, Impacts on Human Health, Impacts on Water Resources, Impacts on… Read more »

The Best Study on Ice melt You Will Find

NCHRP NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH  PROGRAM REPORT 577 Guidelines for the Selection of Snow and Ice Control Materials to Mitigate Environmental Impacts This study from 2007 was an outstanding work. It rings true today as the standard for ice management hasn’t changed much in the last few decades, although the new wave of techniques and technology is… Read more »

Stronger Supply Chain – Snow Business Magazine

Our President, Tony Johnson, wrote a great article for the June issue of Snow Business Magazine. The article focuses on building a stronger supply chain for your salt and avoiding salt shortages come severe winter conditions. Tony speaks from his experience of past salt shortages and analyzes the cause of shortages and how to prevent… Read more »

Staggering cost of salt use

Bulk salt is a stable in winter snow and ice control. Recent studies have examined the real cost of salt use for winter maintenance. Here we reference a presentation for the Road Salt Symposium by Carolyn Dindorf of Fortin Consulting, Inc. The study focused on data from Minnesota’s Government and Private costs via St. Anthony… Read more »

DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup Newsletter

National APWA Excellence in Snow & Ice Award Winner Village of Buffalo Grove After their annual review, the Village of Buffalo Grove Public Works Department revised their winter maintenance plan for 2014 – 2015 to achieve the highest level of service possible at the lowest possible cost. The new plan was created by a team… Read more »

Dangerously Salty Fresh Water? It Is Happening.

There is no denying the urban sprawl in America is spreading. Researchers found startling data in freshwater lakes of the Northern United Sates. Too many chlorides in salt can do damage to many areas of life, from killing off plants and trees or stunting reproduction of beneficial animal to environmental catastrophes like Flint, Michigan. Researchers… Read more »

Municipal Bulk Water Conditioning Salt Case Study

While a Midwest Salt sales person was out prospecting, he came across a municipality in need of a reliable salt supplier. The community manager confided their current supplier had an issue getting their barge to the offload/staging location and had to wait weeks for a delivery. They had approximately 5 days of salt left in… Read more »

Oil Refinery Bulk Salt Supply Case Study

oil refinery salt supplier

Midwest Salt was contacted by an oil refinery in the Chicagoland area. They presented some problems they were having with their bulk salt supplier and needed a more reliable source of bulk industrial salt for delivery to their production facility. Midwest Salt has them covered. We can always handle the supply AND logistics of any… Read more »

Midwest Salt Featured In The INC 500 of 2015

Midwest Salt’s ability is spreading like our bulk salt on a wintry day. Midwest Salt has been featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine’s annual ranking of the top 500 fastest-growing private companies in America. Midwest Salt ranked #298!  Thanks to our hard work, devotion to our customers, dedication to bring on new companies, and… Read more »

Midwest Salt Has Moved To A NEW Location

Dear Midwest Salt Customer or Vendor, We are sending this letter to notify you that we have relocated to a new facility. Our phone, fax and email contacts have not been changed. Being the Midwest’s fastest growing salt supplier, Midwest Salt has outgrown its facilities. In order to better serve our customers, we are extremely… Read more »

Science and the Art of Ice Melt

NILES HYSELL:September 19, 2011 How does one know which ice melt products to use, when to use it, and how much to apply? Morton Salt and Michigan Technological University conducted an experiment to answer these questions. They analyzed and measured the effectiveness of the most commonly used ice melters in both the laboratory and in… Read more »

Midwest Salt in the News- Crain’s Chicago Business

Recently Crain’s Chicago Business Magazine featured Midwest Salt’s President, Tony Johnson, in an article about the current salt market. You can view the article entitled, “Rough weather, economic recovery mean improved conditions for salt prices.” by Micah Maidenberg HERE. The article discusses the current pricing of bulk road salt, the reasons for the prices, the… Read more »

Cutting Down On Salt Usage

Snowy Road

Chloride emissions are a real threat to our environment. This article By Mike Lynch, discusses the problems and the efforts being used in Upstate New York to combat the rising chloride levels in the local water supply. Salt in fresh water is diluted in the rainy months but not at a rate higher than is… Read more »

Salt: Mid-season Update By snowmagazineonline.com

Snow Magazine recently released a great article about the current state of the national salt supply. The article discusses the salt shortage of 2014 and the purchasing habits and supply available to snow contractors across america. One interesting bit the author, ASCA Executive Director Kevin Gilbride, wrote was: “So with the deplete supply at the… Read more »

“Where Is The Salt?” By Snow Magazine

Snow magazine wrote an extremely interesting article regarding the apparent bulk road salt “shortage”. At this time Midwest Salt has more than enough bulk road salt to deliver throughout an extremely harsh winter. Even though we have access to these huge amounts of salt available the shortage is real and another harsh winter could tax supplies… Read more »

Salt Shortage of 2014 May Continue

Salt Shortage

Be warned. If current trends continue, the professional snow and ice management industry is facing another salt crisis — limited availability and high prices — heading into Winter 2014-15. http://www.snowmagazineonline.com/snow-061314-salt-crisis.aspx Kevin Gilbride is Executive Director of the Accredited Snow Contractors Association and publisher of Snow Magazine. Those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat… Read more »

Learn About Liquid Ice Melt

Liquid Ice Melt Delivery

Liquids are the Game Changer in a highly competitive market. There are two ways to increase profits, raise prices or be more efficient. Price-conscious customers may be lost if you raise prices doing the same thing you always did in the past. Increasing efficiency enables you to reduce overhead, add customers, and be more competitive… Read more »