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Frac Sand Mining and the Struggle for Community 2017 • Author: Thomas W. Pearson An overlooked part of fracking's environmental impact becomes a window into the activists and industrial interests fighting for the future of energy production—and the fate of rural communities When the Hills Are Gone tells the story of Wisconsin's sand mining wars.
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Illinois, the leading industrial sand producer by state during the 20th Century, was recently overtaken by Wisconsin, as demand for frac sand has sharply increased during the last 10 years. During the last 100 years or so, the majority of the industrial sand produced in Illinois has been, and continues to be, from the "Ottawa Sand" District in ...
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Environmental Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire o Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a popular method for extracting natural gas from shale deposits below the earth's crust. (7,8,9) o The geology of Wisconsin has optimal sand deposits for the process. (7,9) o The number of frac sand mines in WI has greatly increased in ...
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Transportation Impacts of Frac Sand Mining in the MAFC Region: Chippewa County Case Study, National Center for Freight & Infrastructure Research & Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison (January 2016) ... The Pennsylvania State University. 329 Innovation Blvd., Suite 118. University Park, PA 16803. Phone: (814) 865-4290.
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A controversial frac sand mining company that recently opened a site in Wisconsin is facing opposition to plans that would greatly expand its mine in Clayton County, Iowa. Pattison Sand Co. has requested re-zoning of 746 acres of land from agricultural to heavy industrial to expand its underground mine.
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The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, recently presented a three-part forum entitled Fracking: The Wisconsin Connection. The series sought to educate the community and students about the social, economic and environmental issues arising from frac sand mining and processing in western and central Wisconsin.
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Dr. Crispin Pierce of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire has been measuring PM2.5 levels at 15 Wisconsin frac sand sites over the last five years. As frac sand mining, processing and everything that comes with it, such as truck and train traffic, have increased, so too have the levels of fine particulate matter.
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Hydraulic fracturing involves high pressure injection of water with sand to fracture the rock allowing oil/gas to flow more freely to a well. Frac Sand Frac sand is naturally occurring high purity quartz (>99%) sand (0.1 to 2.0 mm fraction) that must meet rigorous industry specifications.
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According to the Wisconsin DNR, 11 active frac mine and processing plants are in Trempeleau County where Popple resides. Popple said she has seen symptoms of respirable silica exposure first hand near Chippewa Falls. "A teacher who taught in my building has a bad cough," Popple said. "When she leaves the area, the cough goes away.
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Dr. Crispin Pierce from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and students in the Environmental Public Health Program have released findings from an initial round of air monitoring "snapshots''...
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Unfortunately, a new study titled "PM2.5 Airborne Particulates Near Frac Sand Operations," conducted by students and Dr. Crispin Pierce from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Environmental Public Health (ENPH) program, is so poorly designed it has no value for furthering our understanding of the impact of frac sand facilities on ...
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According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin has been producing frac sand for use in the petroleum industry for more than 40 years; however, the recent increase in demand has brought frac sand mining to the forefront of the Wisconsin economy.
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Thousands of tons of frac sand are required for one horizontal well, so the demand is great when multiple horizontal wells are drilled. ... The St. Peter is exposed at the surface and mined as a high quality Tier 1 frac sand in northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. ... University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0107; Telephone: (859) 257 ...
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CPH studies health effects of frac sand mining. Published on August 27, 2014. ... southwest Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota. ... The University of Iowa. College of Public Health. College of Public Health Building 145 N. Riverside Drive Iowa City, IA 52242 319-384-1500 ...
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Frac sand operations concentrated in southwest Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota are located in what is known as the Driftless Area. It comprises 23,000 square miles and is known for its sandstone...
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Frac Sand Characteristics • The American Petroleum Institute (API) sets frac sand specifications in the U.S. • Standard frac sand has to be >99% quartz or silica. • Granules should conform to one of 4 "mesh" sizes. • Sphericity and roundness should be 0.6 or larger. • More rounded grains means higher permeability.
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The average sand mine is targeted at non-agricultural parcels disproportionately. As an example we looked at one of the primary Wisconsin frac sand counties and found that even though 6% of the county was forested and nearly 50% was in some form of agriculture, 98.2% of the frac sand mine area was forested prior to mining.
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Jul 19, 2022LaSalle County, with seven frac sand mines, is the country's unofficial frac sand capital. While Texas is home to the most sand and gravel mining by volume in the nation, Wisconsin and Illinois are close behind, and the sand from this region is considered higher quality for fracking, because of its uniform size and shape. Since the sandstone ...
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October 30th, 2013. "Mount Frack," a 3-story high pile of frack sand in Winona, Minnesota on the Mississippi River. This mountain of carcinogenic silica (frac) sand was right across the street ...
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In western Wisconsin, 10 frac sand processing plants have closed over the past 18 months. That's one-third of the industry's dry sand milling capacity, said Kent Syverson, a geology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a sand-industry consultant.
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A study compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign found that in the past five years, Republican candidates for state office received more than $710,000 from frac sand interests—15 times what ...
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There is a mineral rush underway in the Upper Midwest—for sand. Western Wisconsin, in particular, has become the epicenter of the rush due to the continuing horizontal drilling and hydrologic fracturing, or fracking, boom in the United States. The unusually round, hard, well-sorted, silica-rich sands of western Wisconsin make them ideal frac ...
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A scenic 10-mile stretch of Wisconsin bluff land would be off-limits to frac-sand mining under a proposed ordinance that has strong local support but must overcome a pro-business climate that has ...
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A professor and group of student researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire claim they found elevated particulate levels associated with frac-sand mining. Although their studies didn't conclude the levels are dangerous, professor Crispin Pierce has irresponsibly asserted that the levels will decrease life expectancy, leading ...
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A single fracked well can require 10,000 tons of industrial silica sand, according to Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources. Ceramic beads and other man-made alternatives exist, but they ...
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According to Midwest Energy News, this was a welcomed injection to the economy in Greenfield, Wisconsin, where a contract with Unimin Corp.'s facility paid 15 cents on the first million tons of sand shipped out of the city and 10 cents after that. In the mine's first year of operation, this amounted to $222,019.
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Sep 30, 2021Meyer said this will enable the research team to collect more accurate comparative data about how frac sand mining will affect people who live near the mines, if and when they reopen, Pierce said those interested in having a monitor installed can contact him at (715) 836-5589.
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Frac sand is "quartz sand of a specific grain size and shape" that is suspended in the fluid that gets injected into oil and gas wells, according to a report by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, a University of Wisconsin program.
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Jan 4, 2022Thomas Jacob, the vice president of shale research for analytics firm Rystand Energy, said the oil and gas producers used 74 million tons of sand in 2020, down from 99 million tons in 2019. But Jacob said oil well drilling and completions began ramping back up in 2021 and overall demand for sand reached around 93 million tons that year.
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A controversial frac sand mining company that recently opened a site in Wisconsin is facing opposition to plans for a sevenfold expansion of its underground mine in Clayton County, Iowa.
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As part of the March 2012 sand mining moratorium resolution, the Buffalo County Board instructed the University of Wisconsin-Cooperative Extension Office to study the economics of frac sand mining as it pertains to Buffalo County. The findings in this study are based on the available peer reviewed literature, empirical data gathered for Buffalo ...
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The force of the liquid and sand mixture creates small fractures in shale rock, and the sand grains help keep these cracks propped open after the pumps turn off. This allows the gas and oil to seep out. On November 7, 2017, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired this image (above) of several sand mines near Chetek, Wisconsin.
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"Industrial sand mining has been a big economic stimulus to Western Wisconsin," said Orr. "When I started college at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire in 2006, people there were still talking about how the town had never really recovered from the UniRoyal Tire factory closing in town, even though the tire factory closed in 1991.
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Frac sand is currently being mined from sandstone formations in much of western and central Wisconsin. The same formations are less well exposed and generally more fine-grained in the eastern and southern parts of the state.
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Born out of the hydraulic fracking boom — where water, sand, and chemicals are pumped into the ground to break apart rock and release oil or natural gas — Wisconsin is now the nation's leading...
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May 26, 2022Frac sand mining, or silica sand mining, expanded rapidly in rural Wisconsin in the early 2000s. Some rural residents embraced the new jobs and income, while others were concerned about negative economic, ecological, and health impacts and organized to voice their opposition. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry stalled.
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However, Kent Syverson, a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire geologist who has served as a consultant both for frac sand companies and people opposed to frac sand mining, argued in a 2012 guest ...
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Wisconsin Frac Sand Businesses Lose Jobs Posted on July 1, 2020 A frac sand producer in Monroe County, WI laid off 55 employees as of May 1, stating the COVID-19 pandemic and underlying oil price war and depressed market prices.
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According to University of Wisconsin Extension, frac sand is quartz sand of a specific grain size and shape that is plentiful in western and central Wisconsin. The type of sand used in the fracking process must be made up almost entirely of quartz grains that are very round, extremely hard, and of a specific size range. Gonyo said that the oil ...
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But while UI studies found little risk of silica exposure for nearby residents, a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire study in the same area found significant air pollution from frac sand mining ...
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