For years the Santa Clara Valley Water District has provided
free sand and sandbags during the rainy season around Santa Clara
County and for years at the San Martin sandbag site
– the sand, but not the bags, has been disappearing rather
unambiguously.
SAN MARTIN – For years the Santa Clara Valley Water District has provided free sand and sandbags during the rainy season around Santa Clara County and for years at the San Martin sandbag site – the sand, but not the bags, has been disappearing rather unambiguously.
“We’ve had this problem for so long. We even reduced the quality of sand from white sand to lower quality because people would truck it away and use it for landscaping and stucco,” said Zak Mousli, a vegetation specialist at the water district.
The site adjacent to the airport yard on San Martin Avenue has no fence and is essentially a hill of sand, free for the taking. It’s evident to the water district that front-loading trucks are moving in and out over the weekends and taking the sand, but leaving the bags. The intent of some takers is questionable.
Mousli said he caught a man openly shoveling the sand into his truck.
“I asked him ‘what are you doing?’ He said he needed it for construction. ‘This is for sandbags, for flooding’ I told him. He said the construction was for a flood,” Mousli said.
Since the water district is a public agency and the sand is free, Mousli said they can’t accuse people of taking the sand for uses other than sandbags. No calls to the police have been made, he said.
On Dec. 14, the water district left 18 tons of sand and by Thursday it was gone. On Tuesday, a 10-wheeler unloaded a full truck load at the site. Water district spokesman Marty Grimes said sand was still available at the San Martin site as of Thursday morning.
Whether it’s used for sandbags or by others who opt to go against the grain, once that pile is depleted the site will be closed, Grimes said.
A more secure replacement site will be considered, Grimes said, it the hope that the free service and public benefit of the sandbag program will stop being abused.
The next closest site to Morgan Hill is at the El Toro Fire Station, 18300 Monterey Road, which has security measures in place so sand for sandbags is available for those who need it.
“It’s kind of frustrating sometimes,” Mousli said. “They wipe the whole place out and take the whole thing over the weekends. We get there Monday and don’t see anything.”
