It was supposed to be economical and environmentally friendly – but recently, an audit has revealed the multi-million dollar sand recycling program wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars. In a meeting Thursday, City Council demanded answers.

The city applies thousands of tons of sand to roadways during the winter, and then sweeps it up in the spring – before the recycling program was introduced, it would go to the landfill.

Then, the city brought in a program to recycle and re-use that sand in an effort to be more environmentally friendly, and save money.

However, a recent audit has found the city can’t prove if the program made a difference.

“We cannot conclude on whether the $2.5 million savings was achieved or not, there just is no data going back that far,” City Auditor David Wuin said.

The audit found the program was not monitored properly.

Current City Manager Linda Cochrane is in charge now, but she wasn’t when the program started.

“I remain apologetic, embarrassed and sad,” Cochrane said to council Thursday.

“I can only guess that the thinking at the time was that for whatever reason those checks and balances and oversights were not required.”

The audit found in some chases no council approvals were obtained when they should have been, Cochrane said she finds it hard to understand how it took so long officials to become aware of issues with the program.

“As the city manager mentioned we’re embarrassed by the fact those processes weren’t in place for a number of years, and [we’re] going to make every effort possible to make sure that’s in place for the future,” Wuin said.

The future of the program is unclear, officials will review it and then report back in the summer of 2017.

Officials said there is concern that former city workers went on to be employed by the recycling contractor.

As for this winter, the roads will be sanded, but the sand will not be recycled – crews will only use new sand, officials said.

With files from Susan Amerongen