The Obama Administration has not approved a waiver that would allow New Jersey quick access to tons of salt for ice-covered roads at a port in Maine despite the state being at dangerously low levels.
Townsquare Media reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the state’s request for a waiver of the Jones Act, a 1920 law requiring that all cargo and passengers moving between points in the United States be transported on American vessels.
A waiver would have allowed New Jersey to get the salt within days from a foreign transport in Searsport, Maine.
New Jersey Department of Transportation Spokesman Joe Dee told the Washington Free Beacon that a waiver from the Jones Act appears “unlikely.”
“We were pursuing a waiver, but we’ve been advised we wouldn’t get one,” Dee said. “It seems unlikely we will get it.”
DHS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The numerous winter storms this year have left New Jersey low on salt to treat their roads.
“The recent series of winter storms in New Jersey have reduced the supply of rock salt to critically low levels,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R.) wrote in an executive order prior to the latest Nor’easter that hit the state last week.
“Rock salt is an essential to maintaining safe travel on state, county, local, and interstate roads as a result of the dangerous and icy conditions during these winter storms,” Christie wrote.
The state is now scrambling to access rock salt.
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