Welcome to the Midwest Salt Blog. We have collected articles from across the web and written others to help educate our customers and any site visitors whom may be interested in our products. The most important information about bulk salt, ice melt, mulch and liquid ice melter can be found below.
— Tony Johnson, President
The Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering (Volume 49, Number 1, January 2022) had release updated information on application rates. The article discusses the application rate of winter road maintenance (WRM) materials and how it depends on various factors such as application methodologies, air and pavement temperatures, amount of snow on the ground, and steepness of the roadway…. Read more »
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 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 »
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 »
Sodium chloride, commonly known as salt, is one of the most abundant minerals on the planet. Salt possesses major economic importance because of its usefulness beyond flavoring and preserving food. In fact, according to the February 2019 U.S. Geological Survey, of the 42 million tons of domestic salt produced in 2018 only 6% of salt… Read more »
The President and CEO of Midwest Salt, Tony Johnson will be a part of the SIMA 2019 Salt Supply & Procurement Panel. Tony will be sharing ideas that will impact the snow and ice management industry and how it can manage it’s salt supply chain. Tony will be joined by: Moderator: Phill Sexton, WIT Advisers;… Read more »
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 »
When salt comes into contact with water it lowers the water’s freezing point. Because of this property, salt will always be a crucial component in ice melt application. In wintry conditions, businesses strive to keep their customers safe outside their storefronts by eliminating ice and the possibility of slips and falls. To decrease the chances… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Winter maintenance operations have many similarities between small and large sites. This video will highlight ways to maximize results while minimizing effort and chloride pollution from salt and ice melters.
The Mississippi WMO (Watershed Management Organization) put together a great, educational video about the how and why chlorides are harmful and how to be responsible with salt usage. While this video is geared towards the small scale of residential application, it can certainly be scaled up to match your large commercial jobs. After all, a… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
For the past 8 weeks, our vessels have been moving in to the coastal stevedore sites along the East Coast and Gulf Coast. Filled to the brim with 50,000+ tons high quality bulk rock salt that has been making it’s way to our customers across the country by vessel, barge, train-car loads, and dump trucks…. Read more »
Midwest Salt has sponsored ChlorideConscious.com to help their chloride reduction movement. They aim to reduce chloride emissions from snow and ice management by giving a free collection of data and articles on how to use chlorides more efficiently. We recognize a problem with chlorides damaging waterways and the environmental impacts this causes. There are numerous studies that document… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
