The Virginia Department of Transportation has riled up some Diggs residents. After recent storms deposited sand at the end of Aaron’s Beach Road, VDOT removed 36 tons of the sand and carried it away.

Some of the sand went on private property in Diggs, while the majority of it went to a VDOT storage site for future use. The residents say that the sand belongs on Aaron’s Beach, not in someone’s yard.

Richard and Betsy Ann Stewart, who live on Gullwing Cove Road in Diggs, said that the sand provides a protective barrier for all the property in the area.

“We need that sand put back on the beach,” said Betsy Ann Stewart.

Ed Clayton, a neighbor who lives on Aaron’s Beach Road, said in an e-mail to VDOT that it wouldn’t have hurt anything to have just left the sand at the end of the isolated road. People would just have to “walk an extra 20 feet to the water,” he said. Residents in the area work diligently to preserve the beach, he sai...