FAIRPORT HARBOR, Ohio—(AVC News)–In late October, water began flooding into the Morton Salt mine facility in Fairport Harbor, in northeast Ohio.

While every miner escaped without injury, the flooding of the mine, which sits about 2,000 feet beneath Lake Erie is closed, with no timeline for reopening made public.

The Fariport Harbor facility produces approximately 1.3 million tons of road salt annually. However, Ohio’s other primary road salt supplier, Cargill in Cleveland, is still operational.

While the Morton facility primarily supplies northeast Ohio counties with road salt, some wonder about the availability of road salt for the rest of the state with winter rapidly approaching.

The Ohio Department of Transportation says that it has stockpiled approximately 75% of their supply of road salt, around 650,000 tons, already on hand for this winter. Shortly after the mine closure state officials have been in contact with Morton’s and working to determine any potential impacts from the shut down.

Locally, AVC News reached out to some area agencies to see if there were any future road salt supply concerns.

Byesville Village Administrator Brennan Dudley says that the village has a state contract for 250 tons of road salt already in place and they do not expect any disruption in their supply.

Cambridge Street Superintendent, Tom Lanning says he has no real concerns as the city has around 300 tons of salt on hand, which hopefully, will see the city through until mid January, with another 1,000 tons promised by Morton, likely to be delivered shortly after the first of the year.   Lanning says one issue that drives up the cost of salt is the delivery prices which is added on to the cost of the salt. Thus,  cost and delivery schedules can be a problem during the winter.

Guernsey County Engineer Paul Sherry tells AVC News that the mine closure was the least of his worries, as Guernsey Co. was one of six counties that did not get an ODOT, statewide salt bid, nor a price to have it delivered. Sherry says they were ahead of any problem by already looking at road salt availability prior to the mine shut down, however, increased cost is a concern.   Sherry says the county is looking at a cost of around $160 a ton delivered versus $80-90 in the past. Guernsey County typically uses about 2,000 tons of road salt each year.