Northwestern Wisconsin is experiencing a large expansion of frac sand mining and processing operations. Frac Sand is used to help extract oil and gas from previously hard to reach shale deposits. It is exported from Wisconsin to places with gas and oil bearing shale where it is used in a combined process called hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Frac sand is mixed with high volumes of water and toxic chemicals and forced into the shale, where it holds open fissures allowing the oil or gas to be extracted.
Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling are causing well publicized concerns for public health wherever it is done. Wisconsin communities have similar concerns: destruction of productive agricultural land, risks of water contamination and depletion, degraded property values, loss of traditional rural communities, noise and traffic increases, and threats to health and safety.
Each of the thousands of oil and gas wells can use as much as 3 million pounds of sand for completion.(See, http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Canadian-SandProppant.htm ) Demand for frac sand will be as limitless as demand for oil and gas. It is expected that many thousands of acres of Wisconsin hills, farmland and woods will be converted to open pit mines, with the transport and processing of sand occurring across the region. Therefore, the public health risks of frac sand mining must be more fully understood.
Large scale mining operations will increase the amounts of both Particulate Matter (PM) and Respirable Crystalline Silica in the air. These pollutants at certain levels can cause respiratory illnesses, including silicosis, and do pose a public health threat.
bj —
You’re being sarcastic, right? If so, well done sir.
If not, you’ll fit right in here. Now tell us about the Mothman, UFO invasion, Bigfoot who lives among us, and the Lake Wissota nessie.
1st of all the “chemicals” used are clearly listed at a number of sites and have been vetted by a number of agencies. 99.5% of what is used in fracturing wells is pure sand and water. We are talking about cased wells here, and the fracturing is generally done at depths of thousands of feet when the water tables are near the surface. And what is down there?? Why, oil and gas of course! Wouldn’t want to contaminate that now would we.
There is already a fracing compound that is non-chemical and 100% organic! Why aren’t they using it? Because there’s no reason to! But they will, if they must. For no reason at all. There is also a method where they don’t use any water. For those that don’t know chemicals (and much, much worse ones) have always been used in drilling conventional wells. No problem.
How are going to be able to stop this?Any ideas?
Make your voice heard by attending all the government meeting that you have time for. Make time. Attend at the local level ,i.e.town, municipalities,county. Join an organization such as Save the Hills Alliance. There are more and more organizations all over the counties and state that need you.. There will be one by you. Your input and comments and strengths are invaluable to these new organizations. They will welcome you and what you can bring to the table. There is strength in numbers and no one need to be the one voice crying in the wilderness any more. Continue to read this website for it’s valuable information. There is a wealth of information here. If you need information ask for my email from the webmaster. He will provide it.
Thanks for thinking of becoming involved.
Trempealeau county public hearing Wednesday, June 13th at 9:10 AM in the County Board Room of the court house. Alan and Debra Erickson, W22144 Erickson Rd. Strum, WI Township of Hale along with their neighbors Tom and Rhonda Segerstrom W22924 Erickson Rd. Township of Hale iall n Trempealeau county are entertaining sand mining, They have borh test drilled and now Debra and Alan Erickson as applying for rezoning of land from Residential-8 to Exclusive Agricultural-2 on 206.29 acres which opens them up for the next step of attaining a conditional land use permit to rip our lands apart,. Everyone is encouraged to attend and show your support to STOP the greed and save our fine state.
The residue or “flowback” water that comes from fracking contains many chemicals such as barium and hydrocarbons. “Osorb” is a product that removes these chemicals from the water but what happens to these extracted chemicals? This is my guess. The barium and other chemicals taken from the mines are not necessarily being buried under ground. I say this because the chemicals found in what are called “chemtrails” or what some people still call jet contrails are the same. You may have noticed the long, persistent contrails that criss cross the skies in the last few years. I think the mining companies are evading the EPA and dumping the chemicals in the upper atmosphere. What is falling from the skies is the same chemical used in rat poison, barium.
There is a Frac Sand Commitee meeting tomorrow evening (05/24/12) at the Trempealeau County courthouse in Whitehall @ 6pm. BE THERE!! Enter at the rear of the building bear Sheriff’s Dept. Parking.
“He wasn’t man enough to come to my door and tell me of his sinister plans that will force me off of my farm and away from my family’s homestead. Has anyone ever stopped one of these?”
He wasn’t “man” enough? Did you not attend any of the town meetings? Sinister plan? Sounds like a cartoon that you have playing in your head. Spider man to the rescue. Why would a wash plant run you off your farm? You’ve demonstrated a clear inability to reason and bought into the mantra of the lunatic fringe. I live right down the road from a wash plant, on the same road and not very far away. There is another wash plant with another company and landowner in another direction not too far away. No, I do not myself own any sand land. Yes, I have lived here essentially all of my life. I can tell you with all honesty that these two wash plants have not impacted my life in any way at all. I don’t farm, but these wash plants are surrounded by farm land. Not one thing has changed for those farmers either, including the one that irrigates.
Now instead of attempting to play on emotions and the shortcomings of some of the others on this forum please tell us just how and why this simple wash plant is going to “run you off your farm”? I can hardly wait….
Since I just received my “letter” informing me that my neighbor of seventeen years is opening his arms to a sand washing operation less than a mile from my house. He wasn’t man enough to come to my door and tell me of his sinister plans that will force me off of my farm and away from my family’s homestead. Has anyone ever stopped one of these?
I wish money was spent on what is needed to remove material the out using mines. I have bacteria colonized in my lung, so don’t want your people have this happen to them.
I just received information from a friend from the Town of Sumner concerning the Barron County Board to “ Removing of County Owned Land from County Forest.” Dated 3-30-2012 for the purpose of allowing frac sand mining. This resolution was presented on the agenda of the Barron County Board on that same date. Barron County Resolution no. 2012. Resolution to Designate Process for Use of County Forest Lands for Frac Sand Mining. This is absolutely outrageous. This is land that has been put aside for all citizens of Barron County to enjoy. Taxes from the citizens help with the upkeep of this land. It produces income from the harvesting of timber. The belief that the mining would bring in substantial monies from the sale of this sand has been studied before. I believe that the board has been down this road in the past and the studies of the monies that the companies would bring to the county is spread out over a period of 30 years. The Barron County Board has the audacity to suggest that this land, belonging to the citizens of the county, be taken away, slashed open with the contents removed, taking away the habitat for flora and fauna, use chemicals in the mining process that may harm the environment, adding heavy truck traffic to roads where there has been little traffic, etc, etc, You have heard it all before if you have been listening. EXCEPT that this extreme selfishness on the part of those board member who are willing to do this has never been done to anyone in the state of Wisconsin. Where does this stop? It is difficult to believe that public officials elected by the people are so uncaring about those same people and the environment that they represent. The destruction of public lands for a few short term jobs with many more unanswerable questions than those that have definitive answers is unbelievable. It is can be understood, if not agreed upon, if a land owner is willing to sell out to sand companies and some land owners who will be surrounded by mining have not much else they can do. Quite a different matter for public officials to take the land away from the people who own it and do whatever these few officials wish. There are still land owners out there that will not sell their land for any amount of money because of the belief in the stewardship of the land and the harm that selling would do to their neighbors welfare. They realize that, yes, one should be able to do what they want with their land until that want interferes with the rights of their neighbors. The mining companies would like you to believe that this is not the case; that everyone can be bought. How very wrong to categorize the character of the few selfish and greedy men upon all good people who love their neighbors as themselves. I would believe that the supervisors of the Barron County Board and all those involved with this debacle would stand back and wait for another law suit from the good people of Barron County.
Heather Andersen
Town of Auburn/Chippewa County.
Are they breaking the county forest law?
County forest comprehensive land use plan 2005-2015
To administer the County Forest program consistent mission statement and the purpose and direction of the County Forest Law considering recommendations of interested citizens and groups. The purpose of the County Forest Law being:
“ … to provide the basis for a permanent program of county forests and to enable and encourage the planned development and management of the county forests
for optimum production of forest products together with recreational opportunities,
wildlife, watershed protection and stabilization of stream flow, giving full
recognition to the concept of multiple use to assure maximum public benefits; to
protect the public rights, interests and investments in such lands; and to
compensate the counties for the public uses, benefits and privileges these lands
provide; all in a manner which will provide a reasonable revenue to the towns in
which such lands lie.” (Sec. 28.11, Wis. Stats.)
Whats up with the forest administrater?
Is there frac mining near Clintonville WI?
May god, what is happening to my state? Prairie du Chein? Sand mining? Thank you for informing me, I had no idea. I’ll post, tweet and share widely.
Has anyone looked in to the process of soil salinization from sand mining? I am trying to think of ways to stop this lunacy. I guess endangered species don’t apply to sand mining Karner Blues can’t fight for themselves. Nor can our song birds or trees. We are on a fast track to destroy out beautiful wisconsin. Guess sand mines can claim emminent domain over the federal government. I cry when I see what has happened to our state
With Scott Walker in office it will pass as ok in Wisconsin. After all he thinks it’s ok to fill in wetlands to build industrys. This is all wrong, our state is a beautiful one with the hills and valleys. Don’t destroy what so many people love. Take a ride along the Mississippi River and see how pretty it is and maybe you will think twice about this being good for our state.
Nice Blog i found for Mining Services.. Keep Posting!
Mining Investment
My sister lives in a 100+ year farm house on 30 acres on the Dunn/St. Croix border. Last summer without warning the rural farm road was widened. She says they no longer set their alarms as the trucks start rolling at quarter to 5a. Her home is shaken at the foundation when they blast…….she says like small earthquakes. There’s a lot of dust and says she has blown ‘bloody gobs’, for lack of a more polite term, out of her nose. I don’t know if there’s a polite way to describe the potential damage/danger to those I love as well as a beautiful agricultural area. They’re at the point of wondering if they just need to let their beloved farm go into foreclosure. What a horrible scenario.
My neighborhood has been invaded by Pattison Sand with a 24×7 loading operation located in an area zoned by the city of Prairie du Chien as riverfront or open spaces use only. Pattison is able to circumvent the city zoning laws by utilizing the Wisconsin Southern Railroads position of railroads are exempt from being governed by municipal zoning laws.
Pattison claims to be a good corporate neighbor but has ignored petitions by residence to locate further north on the railroad in an area zoned as industrial. The reason is they are able to load at the corner of Rice Street and Main Street as It’s free to them where in the industrial zone they have to pay a fee of $3.00 per ton to load.
This puts Pattison in a position of taking total advantage of the city along with the immediate neighbors to reduce their operating costs on the backs of the city and its citizens.
We need your help, suggestions, advice and or anything you can offer us to remove this hazard to this elderly neighborhood.
Please help.
We are a consumer of Pattison frac sand. I must admit they helped save our business by being available when no one else was.
Therefore, I fail to see the correlation of reducing thier overhead by riding the backs of the city and neighbors when thier operation supplies revenue to the community via taxes and by supplying employment to the local area.
You must not be too proud of them since you are posting anonymously, must be a paid troll.
paid Troll is correct – one can only assume that you have no holds, interest or care in the town, the people and the environment and are in on the money making end for frac mining. No amount of taxes will take care of the damage that Pattison and others associated wtih frac mining are doing to the communities and lives of the people of Wisconsin. More than shame on you – hope you choke and rot from the dust they leave behind. Cathy
check out what’s going on in Prairie du chien, WI…across the river from Pattison Sand company of Iowa….every night loading rail cars full of sand…apparently they are having issues across the river (Mississippi) in Iowa so now they are loading there….any comments?
Frac sand mining plays a very important role in the hydraulic fracturing process for natural gas extraction. The sand is used to prop open fractures created in the process so that natural gas can flow into the well bore casing for recovery on the surface.
Frac sand mining also poses significant hazards and problems than must not be overlooked or downplayed. First, the process uses extremely high volumes of water that become tainted with mine tailings that can and will adversely affect plants, fish, birds and animals exposed to the tainted water that is usually dumped into rivers, creeks and streams to make its way into lakes and breeding grounds for wildlife.
Second, frac sand is a fine, crystalline silica sand that can and will penetrate skin, and when inhaled, lodge in the tissue of lungs. It is a known cause of lung cancer and incurable silicosis, both of which can and do lead to death. Dust from a frac sand mining operation can be carried 20 miles or more by the winds, and even further as it blows from trucks and railcars in shipment across numerous states from mine to final destination.
Third, frac sand mining is akin to copper strip mining in that it leaves the mining area devoid of any soil or vegetation resembling something in Arizona where the earth is scraped and dug leaving behind an unsightly blight that devalues property all around it.
The issue of frac sand mining is one of the most dangerous and hazardous components of the hydraulic fracturing process. People living in or near areas where a frac sand mining operation is taking place should be aware of the risks to health and safety that it poses, as well as the threats it presents to the natural environment. They should also be prepared for a severe drop in valuation on their homes and property.
For more information on the frac sand mining process please visit http://fracdallas.org/.