Used sandbags often are just trash, so new options are being explored

Hundreds of thousands of free sandbags provided by local government have protected homes, businesses and public property from recent floods.

Filling and distributing sandbags is grueling but cheap work thanks to economies of scale, the low cost of materials and the help of thousands of volunteers.

But once the floodwaters recede, there are limited options for reusing sandbags. That has some public works administrators looking into alternatives, such as flood barriers that can be filled, ironically, with water. These and other options are more expensive, but they can be more rapidly deployed - and they're reusable.

Contamination

Only sandbags that have not come into contact with floodwater can be reused without restrictions, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

That's because floodwater can be contaminated with human and animal waste, oil and gasoline residue, and farm chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

Such tainted sandbags should not be reused in ways that involve direct human contact, such as in children's play areas and in residential gardening, the IEPA says. Sandbags that have visible signs of contamination, such as oil or fecal matter, should be disposed as waste at a landfill.

Typically, the bags are made of polypropylene plastic. Some are made of canvas, which can be burned with an open burn permit from the IEPA, agency spokeswoman Kim Biggs said.

Some municipalities are offering curbside pickup for sandbags and other flood debris. Hard-hit Gurnee started the service Monday, while Algonquin and West Dundee are still dealing with high waters on the Fox River and haven't addressed the issue yet.

Some local governments, such as West Dundee and Lake County, allow residents to return them by dropping them off at their public works facilities.

"The sand can be reused; public works can use it for backfill excavation. But the bags degrade over time, so we throw those out," West Dundee Public Works Director Eric Babcock said. "They can be stockpiled for future use if you keep them dry and out of the sun, tarped and off the ground."

Lake County, which supplies local governments with sandbags, asks that they be reused locally if possible but accepts any returned ones, said Mike Grinnell, maintenance supervisor for the county's public works department. About 343,000 sandbags were deployed by last week, he said.

The county can use the sand for excavation and landscaping projects that don't include direct contact with people, Grinnell said. "We had a massive pile in 2013 that came back from townships and municipalities," he said.

Alternatives

Nationally, some local governments have purchased portable flood barriers - a more user-friendly, but also more expensive, alternative to sandbags. Many use a "bladder system," meaning they get filled with water - typically from fire hydrants or a nearby body of water - to stay put.

Lake County's Grinnell said he plans to take a hard look at such alternatives, particularly to protect a levee in Libertyville Township from future flood threats.

"I started looking into some options after the flood in 2013," he said. "Alternatives like these are pretty promising. They have a lot of merits, like quicker deployment."

One such product is AquaDam, made by a California-based company. The city of Branson, Missouri, purchased $230,000 worth of AquaDam to protect its wastewater plant when faced with an emergency flood threat in April, said Mike Ray, the city's utilities director.

The purchase was well worth it, Ray said. "It takes a considerable amount to stack sandbags for almost half a mile," he said. "In an emergency, this allowed us to act quick. Plus, they are reusable."

Aqua Dam Vice President Matthew Wennerholm said a 30-inch-tall section costs $20 per foot; the exterior is made of polypropylene geotextile with inside tubing made of polyethylene, a type of plastic, he said.

Another flood barrier is Tiger Dam, made by Louisiana-based U.S. Flood Control. Ohio State University spent $106,000 to purchase Tiger Dam in 2015, said Dan Hedman, director of marketing and communications.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, spent $2 million in 2009 to purchase a combination of Tiger Dams and earth-filled flood barriers, said Maria Johnson, city communications division manager. "How and when these are deployed depends on the specific locations and circumstances of the event."

Tiger Dam is basically a big tube made of PVC-like material, said Cheryl Whitmer, U.S. Flood Control's sales director. It typically comes in 50-foot sections that can be linked. A 19-inch-tall, 50-foot-long Tiger Dam - the equivalent of 500 sandbags - costs $1,250, she said.

By comparison, West Dundee's Babcock said the village bought its sandbags from a supplier at about $1,400 for 2,500 sandbags, or 56 cents per bag. That doesn't include labor costs, he pointed out. Sandbags available to the general public generally cost about $3 per bag.

The advantage of their products, both Whitmer and Wennerholm said, is that they are easier and faster to set up than sandbags and can be reused time and time again.

"With sandbags, you spend days stacking, and they can seep water," Wennerholm said.

"Nobody likes the upfront price," Whitmer said, "but when you do the math, it's just worth it."

Grinnell said he's well aware that flood barriers are more expensive than sandbags, which will be a big factor in any future decision. But sandbags are extremely labor intensive and take away time from other job duties, Grinnell said.

"You've got to put them up, and then put them all back down," he said. "It takes a lot of people to make sandbags."