Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/tag/frac-sand-2/)
Pattison Sand Co., which recently opened a site in Wisconsin, is facing concerns over the growth of its Iowa mine, which has a worst-in-the-nation safety record.
Center reporters Kate Golden and Taylor Chase and artist Jacob Berchem talk about their recent experiment in animating the news.
Two weeks ago, Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Boldt approved the state Department of Natural Resources’ issuance of permits for a large and controversial dairy farm in Central Wisconsin. But he also reduced the amount of water the farm could pump from proposed high-capacity wells and required the DNR to consider the impact of the withdrawals in conjunction with other, nearby wells — a concept known as cumulative impacts.
A judgment filed by the state Department of Natural Resources says Hi-Crush Augusta operated the two wells for five months in 2012, as well as operating without a water measuring meter in one of the wells.
Oklahomans are seeing more earthquakes (possibly from fracking), silica health concerns aren’t borne out by Minnesota studies, and rail revenues shoot up due to all those cars full of sand.
While the number of Wisconsin car-train accidents has remained relatively steady in recent years, and derailments actually are down, some residents who live near train tracks used for transporting sand, primarily in western and northwestern communities, complain about noise and traffic delays in addition to safety worries.
Minnesota mines can be approved without an environmental review, an Eau Claire citizen finds a loophole that could leave taxpayers to foot the bill for reclamation, and We Energies wants a new natural gas pipeline to serve frac sand mines in western Wisconsin.
Reporter Alison Dirr just finished a yearlong internship with us, during which she covered the sprawling beat of Wisconsin’s fast-growing frac sand industry. We talk about that in the latest podcast. And below the audio link, further reflections from Dirr. Also, we now have music for the podcast. Alison Dirr: After a year as WisconsinWatch’s frac sand beat reporter, I’m leaving with a real appreciation of the complexity and nuance of this controversy.
Obama’s climate plan could lead to more frac sand demand, the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board loses a bid to stop mining within the riverway and North Carolina limits disclosure of fracking chemicals.
We launch a new feature today on the WisWatch blog: a roundup of the latest news in frac sand. This week: Glenwood City sand plant clears final hurdles, Buffalo County wins a court appeal of a permit, Gov. Scott Walker visits a frac sand mine.
Wisconsin’s frac sand boom may have slowed, but the number of permitted and proposed facilities still has grown since the Center’s May tally.
Nearly a fifth of Wisconsin’s 70 active frac sand mines and processing plants were cited for environmental violations last year, as the industry continued to expand at a rapid clip.