Comments on: Land is Being Destroyed in Wisconsin by Frack Sand Mining https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2016/01/21/land-is-being-destroyed-in-wisconsin-by-frack-sand-mining/ Just another WordPress site Wed, 14 Feb 2024 02:06:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Civil Society (9/25/2014) https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2016/01/21/land-is-being-destroyed-in-wisconsin-by-frack-sand-mining/#comment-185509 Civil Society (9/25/2014) Thu, 21 Jan 2016 19:30:27 +0000 http://www.frackcheckwv.net/?p=16513#comment-185509 <strong>Communities At Risk: Frac Sand Mining in the Upper Midwest</strong> A Report by the Boston Action Research -- A project of the Civil Society Institute Written by Emily Chapman, Lyle Hopkins, Alex Jasset, Seth Sheldon, Grant Smith of Boston Action Research, 1 Bridge St., Suite 200, Newton, MA 02458 Date: September 25, 2014, www.civilsocietyinstitute.org <strong>Executive Summary </strong> The rapid expansion in the United States of oil and shale gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), has a hidden side filled with problems: the mining of the special sand – known as “frac sand,” for short -- that is essential to fracking a drilled well. The specific type of sand in question is now mined most heavily in Wisconsin and Minnesota. However, as the demands of fracking grow it is possible that mining will expand to sand deposits in at least 12 other states. <strong>Key concerns about frac sand mining include the following: </strong> <strong>Water issues.</strong> Individual mining operations withdraw between 420 thousand and 2 million gallons per day. The volume of water used is significant, and added chemicals to process the sand compound water related problems with sand mining. Polyacrylamide, a flocculent, that encourages clumping of particles to remove impurities from the sand is used at mining and processing operations. It contains traces of acrylamide and can break down into acrylamide, a neurotoxin and known carcinogen, and can enter groundwater or surface water from wastewater ponds at mining operations or from piles of processed sand ready to be transported. There is also increasing concern with acid mine runoff from operating and reclaimed frac sand mines. <strong>Air quality issues.</strong> Silica dust is of great concern to people living near frac sand operations. The smallest particles of dust (2.5 microns, a fraction of the width of a human hair) cause the greatest damage to the lungs. This is due to the fact that smaller particles can evade the body’s natural defense mechanisms and penetrate deeper into the lungs, and even into the bloodstream. Crystalline silica dust, generally around 4 microns in diameter or less, is also especially harmful. Depending on the amount and duration of exposure, silica dust can cause silicosis of the lungs, a well-known hazard in mining, and at natural gas and oil drill sites due to the use of sand in fracking operations. <strong>Financial issues.</strong> Frac sand mining causes many economic harms, including a potential loss of nearby real estate values of up to 25 percent; and decreased lifespan for roads and other infrastructure, which carry a substantial replacement cost. Even though Minnesota state law allows counties to levy a 15-cent per ton aggregate extraction tax to help offset the costs of road repair, many counties choose not to. Additionally, the Minnesota Local Research Board found that 22 cents per ton-mile would be a more accurate amount to cover the costs. <strong>Perhaps the best response to the rapid expansion of shale gas extraction</strong> is to take a step back and view the entire shale gas fuel cycle more holistically. The questions, if properly posed, can assist us in defining the issues, challenges, and consequences of the shale gas fuel cycle. They will also help answer whether or not the shale gas revolution is of benefit to all of us or just some of us, and determine the long-term viability of the shale-gas economy. In pursuing this exercise, the scope of questions should not remain at some national or geopolitical strategic level. Rather, they should also address the consequences of the shale gas fuel cycle for people at the local level including the consequences for their property, their businesses, their cultural values and way of life, their health, their access to adequate supplies of clean water, the impact on local infrastructure, as well as the sustainability of their community’s economy in the near- and long- term. Of course, such questions should have been posed long ago. <strong>Powerful economic forces are churning ahead without pause or consideration of the implications of shale gas extraction for our country and our citizens.</strong> Source: http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/pdfs/092514%20csi%20bar%20frac%20sand%20mining%20report%20final2%20-%20embargoed.pdf See the photos at: http://www.ccc-wis.com Communities At Risk: Frac Sand Mining in the Upper Midwest

A Report by the Boston Action Research — A project of the Civil Society Institute

Written by Emily Chapman, Lyle Hopkins, Alex Jasset, Seth Sheldon, Grant Smith of Boston Action Research, 1 Bridge St., Suite 200, Newton, MA 02458

Date: September 25, 2014, http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org

Executive Summary

The rapid expansion in the United States of oil and shale gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), has a hidden side filled with problems: the mining of the special sand – known as “frac sand,” for short — that is essential to fracking a drilled well. The specific type of sand in question is now mined most heavily in Wisconsin and Minnesota. However, as the demands of fracking grow it is possible that mining will expand to sand deposits in at least 12 other states.

Key concerns about frac sand mining include the following:

Water issues. Individual mining operations withdraw between 420 thousand and 2 million gallons per day. The volume of water used is significant, and added chemicals to process the sand compound water related problems with sand mining. Polyacrylamide, a flocculent, that encourages clumping of particles to remove impurities from the sand is used at mining and processing operations. It contains traces of acrylamide and can break down into acrylamide, a neurotoxin and known carcinogen, and can enter groundwater or surface water from wastewater ponds at mining operations or from piles of processed sand ready to be transported. There is also increasing concern with acid mine runoff from operating and reclaimed frac sand mines.

Air quality issues. Silica dust is of great concern to people living near frac sand operations. The smallest particles of dust (2.5 microns, a fraction of the width of a human hair) cause the greatest damage to the lungs. This is due to the fact that smaller particles can evade the body’s natural defense mechanisms and penetrate deeper into the lungs, and even into the bloodstream. Crystalline silica dust, generally around 4 microns in diameter or less, is also especially harmful. Depending on the amount and duration of exposure, silica dust can cause silicosis of the lungs, a well-known hazard in mining, and at natural gas and oil drill sites due to the use of sand in fracking operations.

Financial issues. Frac sand mining causes many economic harms, including a potential loss of nearby real estate values of up to 25 percent; and decreased lifespan for roads and other infrastructure, which carry a substantial replacement cost. Even though Minnesota state law allows counties to levy a 15-cent per ton aggregate extraction tax to help offset the costs of road repair, many counties choose not to. Additionally, the Minnesota Local Research Board found that 22 cents per ton-mile would be a more accurate amount to cover the costs.

Perhaps the best response to the rapid expansion of shale gas extraction is to take a step back and view the entire shale gas fuel cycle more holistically. The questions, if properly posed, can assist us in defining the issues, challenges, and consequences of the shale gas fuel cycle. They will also help answer whether or not the shale gas revolution is of benefit to all of us or just some of us, and determine the long-term viability of the shale-gas economy. In pursuing this exercise, the scope of questions should not remain at some national or geopolitical strategic level. Rather, they should also address the consequences of the shale gas fuel cycle for people at the local level including the consequences for their property, their businesses, their cultural values and way of life, their health, their access to adequate supplies of clean water, the impact on local infrastructure, as well as the sustainability of their community’s economy in the near- and long- term. Of course, such questions should have been posed long ago. Powerful economic forces are churning ahead without pause or consideration of the implications of shale gas extraction for our country and our citizens.

Source: http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/pdfs/092514%20csi%20bar%20frac%20sand%20mining%20report%20final2%20-%20embargoed.pdf

See the photos at: http://www.ccc-wis.com

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