Questions remain about reason for leak, safety of drinking water and where salt can be sourced for roads during winter
When water last month began gushing through a crack in the ceiling of a Morton Salt mine in Ohio, the company had only one option: shut the mine down for good.
For locals in and around Fairport Harbor, it means the loss of 77 jobs; but for the wider region, which depends on its salt reserves to keep roads ice- and snow-free every winter, it could mean travel chaos.
On top of that, in the weeks since the mine’s closure what’s been concerning mining experts and residents alike across the Great Lakes region is the mine’s location – about 2,000ft (610 meters) underneath Lake Erie. And that is sending broader warning signals across the region among activists and environmentalists, as to whether the issue could eventually hit other mines underneath the Great Lakes.
At the Fairport Harbor facility, one of 12 rock salt mines that Morton Salt runs around the world, around 1.3 million tons of rock salt were mined from underneath the lake every year.
Last winter’s colder and snowier than average weather ate into road salt stockpiles at hundreds of municipalities across the region.
