Curbed: "We are pretty sure its sand"

EDIT (2/6/09): Curbed commented on their post on 2/4 saying "Salt it is. We stand corrected!" We also received the following picture today showing that they are starting to cover it up (but not completely?):

Finally, more info can be found on the COWNA blog here.

--------------------------------
Original post below:


According to Curbed, the pile of mysterious material on the piers is most likely sand.

A reader of theirs submitted the following photo:

Here is there response to a reader emailed question:

Reader email number two included the beautiful photograph above, and this note: "Just wondering if you know what's up with all the sand being dumped on the Pier in Cobble Hill/Red Hook/Columbia St neighborhood? Its been non-stop for days." A set of follow-up exchanges with our tipster produced this:

"We are pretty sure its sand.... loads and loads of it. I believe they need to cover road salt... I could be wrong because that was our first thought but after watching it for a few days, we are pretty sure its sand and the trucks are now driving on top of it as you can see from the picture. It appears they intend to fill the concrete block perimeter you can see on the pic, that is ALOT of sand. I can't quite figure out where the sand is coming from. At first I thought it was from one of the ships, but I have since abandoned that thought. We thought maybe you would know."

To its credit, Columbia Street neighborhood blog The Word on Columbia Street has been tracking this story for several days now, and though they haven't yet tracked down the cause of this menace, it's agreed on this point: that's a big-ass pile of sand.

Full post here