Snow removal companies say they are out of crucial de-icer ahead of upcoming storm

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- Hours before a snowstorm that will bring moderate snowfall and subzero temperatures to Southern Colorado, snow removal companies say they are out of a popular de-icer they need to pave roads.

Eric Moroski, co-owner of Weisburg Landscape in Colorado Springs, says he can't get any more Ice Slicer.

Ice Slicer is made by the company Redmond, based out of Utah. Moroski gets it delivered to Weisburg from EnviroTech Services.

In a letter he received Monday, a representative from EnviroTech Services wrote that it slowed down its rail fleet earlier in the season as a result of how long it took for Colorado's first major snowstorm this year.

In turn, it's been tough to ramp it back up fast enough for the number of snow events that have hit the front range recently.

And when this newest round of snow hits sometime Wednesday afternoon, Moroski is not going to be able to do the job he promised his clients.

"The product has been depleted in yards across the front range," he told KRDO.

Moroski says that it's written into his contracts with homeowner's associations, medical facilities, and commercial lots that he uses Ice Slicer. The product is considered an industry leader. He thinks for this storm, he'd use about three and a half tons of Ice Slicer. Moroski said the alternative would be a sand-salt mixture, but that's a lot messier and less effective.

"They literally had to slow up production and they slowed up their rail yard, and when you slow up a rail system, you don't easily just ramp it back up," Moroski said.

Moroski doesn't blame the manufacturer or the supplier for the issue. But he is not alone.

The City of Colorado Springs told KRDO it thinks it has enough of the product to last for the rest of the winter, barring an abnormal amount of snow. But it is also unable able to get more of the brown-colored mixture right now.

But for a local company like Weisberg, there's not a real clear solution in sight.

"Since this is in Utah, it's not a simple thing. [I can't] go make a 24-hour roundtrip trek to Utah to grab 25 tons in a truck."