re: River sand for new sod

From what I’ve always understood, you are good to go if it is pumped directly from the river for the sole purpose of using as soil and is immediately hauled off.

What happens in reality is they will pump the high spots so the large ships can pass, and just dump that sand/silt material nearby and let it sit for months until it’s hauled off. This allows the weeds and torpedo grasses to grow from that land before it’s hauled off and sold to you as “clean” soil.

It’s just a matter of it you trust the soil company. If you’re buying from the sod company, they know better and you should be ok. Just depends on the risk you want to take.