A significant underground water inflow led Morton Salt to stop mining at its Fairport, Ohio, site on Oct. 22, the company said; it has not quantified effects on production or customer deliveries.
Morton Salt said employees were evacuated safely and no one was injured. The company also notified regulatory authorities. It is consulting independent experts and regulators as it assesses the incident and considers its response.
The company said surface operations at Fairport will face severe restrictions during the closure. It plans to notify customers and vendors affected by what it called a force majeure event, but has not named them or detailed the disruption.
Morton Salt reports annual capacity of about 30 million tons across its broader business. Its network includes 12 rock salt facilities, 10 plants producing evaporated and solar salt, and 16 packaging plants. The company has not disclosed Fairport’s individual capacity or how much production the shutdown affects.
Salt shipments from Fairport began in 1959, and the mine is beneath Lake Erie, according to a 2001 report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Morton Salt lists food, water softening, road deicing, chemical and pharmaceutical markets among the uses for its products. The company has not set a reopening date and said it is investigating the water inflow to determine next steps.
