The problem started with one word, ended with a whole lot of towns desperately in need, and taxpayers on the hook for more than $6 million.
New York is now looking to avoid a repeat of last winter’s statewide shortage of road salt as it rebids the supplier contracts.
As they do so, officials say they are ignoring a law that allows the state to give preference to American-based companies. While the law, adopted in 2022, might have been intended to mean the state “may” prioritize bids from American-based companies over firms that mine salt abroad, the state in its bid selection used the word “shall.”
And that significantly increased business for Livingston County-based American Rock Salt, which went from supplying eight counties, to supplying 31.
Troy was one of the cities affected by the shortage.
“We ordered, I think, 1,600 tons. I think we got 100 tons,” said Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello, who made an order to American Rock Salt but had to declare an emergency in February because of the shortage. “Clearly something happened on the state end.”
Assemblymember Harry Bronson, D-Rochester, who wrote the bill, insists the problem isn’t with the legislation itself but the state’s implementation. The state Office of General Services is seeking restitution from American Rock Salt, a state spokesperson said. The company has declined comment.
As for this winter, the state received six bids from salt suppliers and plans to award contracts later this fall.
American Rock Salt re-applied for a contract.
The law where this all began
The Buy American Salt Act gives preference to companies that mine road salt in the United States for state-issued contracts to de-ice public roads and highways with road salt.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, prominent state Democrats and the co-sponsors of the Buy American Salt Act — Bronson and then-state Sen. Tim Kennedy, promised the provision passed in 2022 would boost New York’s economy.
“This is an important step to support good-paying jobs in our upstate communities while growing New York’s economy,” Hochul said in a statement at the time.
The key word in the law is “may” — that is, the state “may,” or will be allowed to, make deals with American-mined road salt companies, even if the bid is up to 10% more expensive than the most competitive offer.
But that word — “may” — turned into “shall” because the Office of General Services, which is responsible for issuing contracts, put out bids for companies and said the office “shall” give deals with American-mined road salt companies even if the bid is more expensive.
“To make it absolutely clear to bidders that OGS was implementing the Buy American preference in our solicitation, we used the word ‘shall’ in its bid proposal,” OGS spokesperson Joseph Brill wrote.
That caused a major shift in which companies received contracts, with American Rock Salt supplying half the state. Then winter hit.
In an email obtained by the New York Public News Network that was sent to other rock salt companies, an OGS official asked on Jan. 30 if they had the capacity to provide “emergency salt.” The official listed nine counties that were “directly impacted by the inability of the current contractor to supply product.”
The office ultimately had to procure at least 60,000 tons of emergency supplies for 29 counties that requested the state’s help.
In a statement in February, American Rock Salt said it had seen “historic demand” because of “the long stretch of cold weather events.”
In an annual winter report, the National Weather Service noted that the season was “moderately harsh” in comparison to recent winters — but that on the whole winters in the state have been “mild.”
American Rock Salt also said it dug into its reserve supplies and bought more mining equipment to dig more salt, but ultimately it was not enough.
“We realize some municipalities are concerned about supply and we understand the frustration associated with this very difficult winter stressing our supply chain,” the statement said.
'The bill is not the problem'
Edward Adams, the highway superintendent for Franklin County, said the county also saw delivery delays.
“Our deliveries have been slower than normal,” Adams told North Country Public Radio at the time. “Normally we would put in an order and it would be fulfilled the next week. [Now] we are waiting when we put in an order for a couple of weeks, and we're getting one load at a time as opposed to one truck right after another. So it’s definitely delayed.”
Counties that were working with a different salt supplier — and many of them not from American-mined rock salt companies — did not make requests for emergency supplies, according to state officials.
“The decision not to implement the Buy American Salt Act preference in the new contract was based on many factors, including the shortages experienced this past winter,” Brill wrote in a statement.
Bronson, who co-sponsored the Buy American Salt Act, said he thinks the Office of General Services should not be ignoring the law in its newest round of contracts.
“The wording of the bill is not the problem,” Bronson said.
He noted that the law gives the state flexibility to still issue contracts to non-American mined salt companies. For the state to ignore the law outright, Bronson said, is taking the “wrong policy approach.”
“What they (the state) should be doing is working with American Salt and working with other providers in America to get the salt here,” Bronson said. “That's what they should be doing instead of buying salt from companies who get it shipped across the ocean from Egypt and other places.”
