As quickly as Lac La Biche County officials can mound sand piles and stock sandbags at rural subdivisions fighting rising lake levels, the supplies are disappearing. But it's not Lac la Biche Lake's rising waves that are soaking up the supplies, its a rising wave of mischief.
Piles of sand and pallets of bio-degradable sandbags have been delivered to municipal spaces within several lakeside subdivisions over the last few weeks, but not all the resources are going towards bracing the shoreline from steadily encroaching water.
It would seem that for some people, there is no honour among sand-baggers.
"If we are leaving the bags at the sandpiles, we've had everything disappear overnight," says Lac La Biche County's senior manager of Public Works Brian Shapka, explaining that hundreds of the 40-cent bags can go missing in a day. 'If you leave 400 out there, 400 will disappear. It's not so much the costs, it's that you bring them out for people to use them who need them and they disappear so nobody who needs them gets them."
The sandbags are also available at several "in-house" location around the municipality, said Shapka, enabling better control of who takes them.
"We are trying to control it so the people that really need them can get them," he said.
Sand bags are available at the Lac La Biche County Centre and the Plamondon Co-op. Lac La Biche County councillor Jason Stedman, whose ward covers the Mission area, says the annoyance caused by some greedy people is a small price to pay for the protection of most residents. He would like to see the drop-off locations remain.
"I know we don't want to keep putting stuff out there, but I'm thinking of the residents out in the country, for them to drive to town, load up with sand, bags, bag it, load it into their truck, come back to their homes, then hike that through their yards to the point where we need it to be protecting our lakeshore ... well, I know we don't just want to be giving something that people are abusing, but when you are having this kind of unprecedented emergency that we are having — I think the price of a couple boxes of sandbags, I can deal with that cost if it expedites ... the ability for people to protect their property."
The subdivision drop-off locations will continue to be available at Golden Sands, Mission Beach, White Sands and Blais Resort.
Rural residents are encouraged to monitor the sandbag locations and contact the municipality's Transportation Services Department with any concerns.
Lac La Biche County administrators have also had access to a sand-bagging machine loaned from Smoky Lake County to help residents. Lac La Biche County firefighters and Alberta Wildland firefighters have also helped residents create sandbag walls.
Water levels in Lac la Biche Lake are approaching all-time highs after heavy rains in June dumped an estimated 10 inches of precipitation in the region. The result has seen the lake's surface rise up four feet in some areas, washing out beach areas, boat launches, and covering rock islands.
Municipal officials are said to be discussing options with Alberta Environment staff to help with the outflow of water from the lake.
Funding for much of the sandbagging expenses is hoped to be reimbursed through the provincial government's Disaster Recovery Program as an inclusion in the recent emergency flooding compensation the municipality submitted claims for.
