Winter Storm 2026: Why is there a salt shortage?

NJDOT, PennDOT, and local landscapers are also stocking up on salt ahead of the storm. Viewer video shows the miles-long line of trucks outside of the Riverside Industrial Complex in Bristol. The trucks are waiting to pick up what they can, and the wait is a long one. Some of the trucks actually have been coming from hundreds of miles away. Action News reporter Leland Pinder live there with more on what has been a steady stream of trucks tonight. Leland? Yeah, Rick, it was busy for much of the morning, the afternoon, some of the evening here. Trucks from North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio coming to Bristol Township and Sylvie Materials hoping to get some salt, but some of them are being turned away. Officials here at the plant tell me there's definitely a salt shortage here affecting buyers and suppliers just like it's affecting consumers. Local salt distributor Sylvie Materials in Bristol Township inundated with traffic Thursday. Video shows trucks lined up as early as 7 a.m. headed to the Riverside Industrial Complex. A little bit of bumper traffic. Ahead of a weekend storm, commercial customers are scrambling to secure salt. With this early demand in January, I think people got caught off guard with their inventory, so we were one of the few people that still had salt on the ground. Trucks came from across the area and as far away as Virginia and North Carolina. Officials say heavy use in December drained supplies early in the season, leading to many suppliers running low now. That's when Sylvie increased their stockpile and upped shipments from overseas. We were kind of preparing for this in advance. The shortage is also hitting private contractors like American Property Solutions out of Allentown. We have secured enough salt for this event. After this going into February, we're uncertain. Owner Michael Pecota says they could be forced to use different materials like sand or cinders, which is coal ash. It's not the private contractor that doesn't want to do a good job. We just don't have the product available to us. As traffic mounted in Bristol Township Thursday, the company turned away pickup customers, prioritizing deliveries for state agencies, municipalities, schools and other similar contracts. We had a very unusual amount of traffic, just unmanageable amounts for our site. And Sylvie tells me those shipments do usually come from overseas, but there are some salt mines here in the U.S. For live here in Bristol Township, Leland Pinder, Channel 6 Action News, Rick. All right, Leland, thank you.