Good Question – 'Reply All': Sandbags, Fair Food & Ash Trees
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Emily from St. Cloud wants to know what happens to all the sandbags after the flooding is over?
If the sand isn't contaminated with floodwater, it can be used as fill for things like playgrounds and sidewalks. But in most cases, the sand is contaminated.
To actually store these would take up way too much space. In Fargo, they used 2.5 million sandbags a couple years ago. That would take up an entire warehouse.
In most cases, what happens is the sand is taken to a lined landfill for hazardous materials.
Some of you wanted to know who decides what the new State Fair foods will be each year.
There are 28 new fair foods this year, including the Bison Dog and the Beer Gelato from Mancini's.
Twenty of the new foods are coming from existing vendors, and eight are coming from new vendors.
Food vendors apply to have a new food in the fall. A Minnesota State Fair committee of five people then looks at quality, value and uniqueness before deciding which foods are in and which ones are out.
Kevin from Columbia Heights wants to know what happens to all the ash trees after they're removed.
Minneapolis will be removing 40,000 ash trees over the next eight years because of the Emerald Ash Borer.
The wood is taken to a processing site near Fort Snelling where it's turned into wood chips. Koda Energy in Shakopee uses those chips for fuel.
Some of the wood is purchased by a company called Wood from the Hood in Minneapolis, who turn it into flooring, picture frames and even cribbage boards.
