Rick Whittle of Allied Snow Removal in Mystic heard a nickname — from some of the guys that plow, and from a salt supplier — for the snow on Sunday: a "salt burner." While it was nothing like the blizzard of 20-plus inches from two weeks prior, the snow was consistent, and he noted you use just as much salt in smaller storms. Whittle's shed that holds 300 tons of salt was empty.

And the logistics of getting salt have become more difficult.

Salt used to come by ship into State Pier in New London. But DRVN Enterprises was forced out due to the State Pier redevelopment for offshore wind, and owner Steve Farrelly's salt pile was depleted this time last year. Farrelly now gets salt by rail around New Haven.

Contractors with tri-axle trucks, such as Allied, now have to go to Providence or New Haven to get salt, while those without trucks have had to look elsewhere for people to deliver.

Whittle said the price of salt is about the same but there's an added cost to get it: Paying $95 an hour for a truck, it costs him more than $200 extra per load to get salt from Providence than from New London, and some days he has three trucks getting salt.

This need is why Farrelly started DRVN in the first place eight years ago.

Allied does 220 properties, including Pfizer, multiple Walmart and Big Y locations, the courthouses in New London, and hospitals. Compared to last year, Whittle said he increased prices on his customers by about 10% on average, but it's not enough to cover added costs. The issue is that it's hard to figure out how much it's going to snow and some customers are locked into a seasonal contract, and fuel has gone up by more than 10%.

"It's not like we produce sneakers and can figure out roughly within 10% how much we're going to sell," Whittle said. "It's Mother Nature; it's not like she's going to say, 'It's going to snow on the 10th, 15th, 20th, 30th.'"

He said Thursday he's in the process of trying to replenish.

"It's almost like being in the Army and planning battle and attack, and every time it snows, that's the battle, and after the battle, you have to replenish your ammunition," Whittle said.

Whittle also supplies salt to smaller contractors, who don't have their own tri-axles or storage.

Harold Hopkins, director of operations for Windham Materials, said the company buys from New Haven and Providence, and stockpiles in Windham and Manchester. He said Windham Materials is now seeing people it normally wouldn't see — people like Whittle, a customer.

"We've always sold salt, but we certainly — with the pile in New London — weren't aggressive with it, because the need was being met," Hopkins said. "And now that that void is there, we realized there's a bigger need in this area now, so we've gotten more involved."

Hopkins said Windham Materials is looking at bringing in salt by rail next season, because one railcar is the equivalent of about five truck loads.

But one ship is equal to 450 railcars, Farrelly said recently on The Kevin Alan Show. He appeared on the show with State Pier redevelopment critic Kevin Blacker.

"I think it's a learning curve, being in the rail. You can't resupply as fast as you can and as efficiently as you could with a ship, so I think with what we were dealt, we're still a strong company," Farrelly said on the show. "We'll learn from our mistakes, in how we handle supplying ourselves this year."

Gateway is the operator of both the terminal in New London and State Pier. Farrelly said that now he has to compete, and he has less tools in his toolbelt to do so.

Bob's Lawn & Yard Service is a smaller contractor in the Willimantic area, and Bob Cardinal said he was previously only getting salt from DRVN. He doesn't have tri-axles, so Farrelly would deliver.

But since Farrelly has had some trouble with railcars coming in, Cardinal said he was short on salt for the Feb. 13 snowstorm and bought from a local distributor instead, which cost $50 more per ton. He ended up purchasing 22 tons.

"It's hard to be in the business and try to pass that cost on, when you already have contracts in place," Cardinal said. He has commercial customers, such as shopping plazas, manufacturers and health care facilities.

Cardinal is in a better spot now, as Farrelly delivered 60 tons of salt to him Thursday.

Another issue raised by both Cardinal and Brian Luby, owner of Forest City Landscaping in Middletown, is that sometimes only untreated salt is available. They said untreated salt doesn't last as long and has a different freezing point.

"When I put down regular salt, I feel like I gotta babysit," Luby said. He said last week he hired a contractor with a tri-axle to go to New Haven, but there was no treated salt left, so he had to get salt from another yard.

"I mean, there's salt out there, but now it just means we gotta outsource it in different areas, and obviously the expense goes up," Luby said. He previously got salt from DRVN and said when he needed salt, Farrelly would drop off a load within eight hours.

Luby used to have a tri-axle but sold it a few years ago because with DRVN, there wasn't a need to have his own truck.

He said people forget what it's like to get 60 or 80 inches of snow in Connecticut, and when that happens, that's when the issues will come to light even more. On top of that, he has had to contend with rising diesel prices.

He and others also expressed concern about public safety and liability if there's not enough salt.

Kurt Hayes, owner of Hayes Services LLC in East Lyme, said he ran out of salt the other day and had to send trucks to Providence at 4 a.m. Farrelly is still his first choice for salt.

e.moser@theday.com