23 thoughts on “Sand mining surges in Wisconsin

  1. Thanks for bringing this to attention. Big ugly business wants to demolish beautiful Wisconsin. I’ll put words out on twitter. FEW ppl know of this fracking thing.

    • But, if we are in need of oil, we wish to sell, is this just another NIMBY? Let’s destroy the Middle East so we can drive our SUV to camp in the wilds and feel green?? If we want to be green, truly green, PETA-green, then Neanderthalesque is all we can do….

  2. Pingback: Sand mines create jobs, concerns | EJobPortal

  3. Big Oil, with the local assistance of those whose vision is “like the iron mines of Minnesota, unique to the world” is a re-invasion in the decimated pine forests of 19th century Wisconsin that preceded a solid agriculture economy on productive soil over substratum of sand and sandstone. The gargantuan open pit mines are south of the glacial escarpment along the Ice Age Trail and the Ice Age Interpretive Center located in northern Chippewa County. This invasion is not unique, it is a disaster of great proportions similar to all open pit mining requiring the removal of “the over burden,” the rolling green hills, fields, flora and fauna, home to all phylum of living and inert organisms who reside in that beautiful landscape. Fossil fuel rather than alternative energy is the cry for jobs and money for those who lease or sell their farmland and forests. It is short-term vision; low paying jobs for the local population, investment and dividends for non-resident Big Oil directors and stockholders. Open pit mining ventures that remove green, fertile fields, hills, the beauty and history of this area is the antithesis of the Land Ethic so carefully described by Aldo Leopold in his environmental bible, A Sand County Almanac. The “frac sand” and its processing plants transport a chemical product that in addition to noise, air and light pollution, requires phenomenal quantities of water, contaminates drinking water with methane and injures the earth. Reclamation is not merely dumping residual sand in 90 feet deep pits. Restoration of the earth is eternal. Economic expedience for short-term gain in a world of rising temperatures, eternal warfare and available alternative energy sources is ethically and esthetically immoral.

    • If you don’t like the use of fossil fuels, then YOU should develop and produce an alternative that is both functional and affordable. Until that happens, oil and natural gas, which are plentiful, will be the most popular fuel sources.

      • Perhaps we could capture the worthless hot air that you are spewing in your angry comment to power the state.

  4. Pingback: Seeing the world in a grain of sand | Climate Chronicle

  5. Pingback: Collateral Damage: What the N&O missed about gas drilling « The Progressive Pulse

  6. Pingback: When is a ‘conflict’ not a conflict? | WisconsinWatch.org

  7. I build these mines. I hate them. I hate what they do to the land. But. The worlds population demands we rape the earth our own demand for oils calls for it. And the comparison to the big iron mines where I live is completely overblown. These sand mines are minuscule compared to what’s happened here. Yes I feel guilty building these places. But I do not feel guilty about paying my mortgage and taking care of my widowed mother. In 20 years the existing mines will hardly be visible. Get over yourselves. It’s creating jobs. Which by the sound of it your state desperately needs.

    • Sandminer’s post REALLY gives me the CREEPS. I wish you all the best, your gonna need it!

  8. Pingback: Guvernul american confirma existenta unei legaturi intre cutremure si fracturarea hidraulica (adica ce se va face la noi deja) | Istoria-Romanilor.com

  9. Pingback: No fracking way: protesters block frac sand mining operations / Waging Nonviolence - People-Powered News and Analysis

  10. So it begins, wisconsin has become a dumping ground for greed, Is Wisconsins people death so unimportant that this type of mining has been let into our state. Those who let this happen will not be happy when family members come down with cancers that can not be cured because of it. This type of mining is not just going to affect those that live in that area it will be affecting ground water in other areas as well. You best start planning your funerals because this is going to be our future. We need to stop all mining in wisconsin it is a matter of life or death.

    • The first book I ever read on “ecology” was Aldo leopold’s ” A Sand County Almanac”. I have always thought of Wisconsin as a State where people value their land and resouces more than MONEY.

      Greed is a powerful poison, and I suspect that over the next 30 years, if Waker and his “industrial backers’ write the laws and steal your natural wealth, that you will have nothing but an industrailized wasteland in much of the State.

      It’s VERY sad!

      AND, I have NEVER known any minimg company that values the lives of the people and their natural resources more than the bottom line.

      The people will regret the strp mining of their State.

  11. Pingback: Its our Jar of Water Koch Brothers! | Occupy Wisconsin

  12. Pingback: FOCUS | No Fracking Way: Protesters Block Frac Sand Mining Operations « GDACC

  13. Pingback: Hm… Keeping An Eye On This - Mythodrome

  14. Pingback: Fracking is Blamed for … Well, Everything, Really. | Maley's Energy Blog

  15. Pingback: Fracking is Blamed for … Well, Everything, Really.

  16. so because the dnr lacks the expertise or resources to monitor the air for silica, we’re just going to have to live with future cancers and various lung diseases…isn’t it incumbent upon the company to provide the resources and the state experts to provide the research extrapolations? no to fracking.

    • Does sand cause cancer or lung disease? I have lived at a beach my whole life and haven’t heard that tale before.

      Certainly can’t be worse than farming or the average chemicals folks put on their lawns.

  17. With your concers, you should focus on adding covered storage, point of transfer dust collectors, and silos or bins for storage. Typically it is tramsfer piles and transfer points that create dust. Loose material in quarries can be helped with watersprays. Not all dust is dangerous, mainly the smaller particals, and untill the material is crushed & screened, it is mostly benign.