Issue Position: Frac Sand Mining and the Will of the People

Issue Position

osts of road repair and maintenance to roads that were never designed to carry the volume of heavy truck traffic generated by mining operations. Current Wisconsin legislation does not allow municipalities to charge mining companies extraction fees to make up for these costs.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has historically been responsible for regulation of non-metallic mining operations to protect ground and surface water quality and air quality. But industrial scale frac sand mining is not the same as traditional sand mining and DNR regulations designed for traditional mines are not adequate to meet these needs. At the same time, political decisions in Madison have reduced DNR staff and their capability to enforce even the inadequate regulations and standards.

The results of inadequate regulation and enforcement in some areas have been painful. Residents near mining sites reported their private wells corrupted and broken by mining activities; walls and foundations cracked by mining company blasting; and their homes filled with fine silica dust associated with diseases like silicosis and cancer. Retaining ponds meant to capture wastewater from frac sand processing failed and leaked, spilling fine particulates and potentially dangerous chemicals into the Saint Croix River and farmers' fields.

In response to inadequate regulation and enforcement, many municipalities acted to defend the health, safety and wellbeing of their constituents. These local units of government, closest to people affected by industrial sand mining, enacted moratoriums to allow time for study of citizen's concerns, and then passed licensing and zoning ordinances designed to protect citizen's interests. Few of these ordinances banned industrial sand mining and processing outright; they set requirements and performance standards for disclosure, monitoring air and water quality, and required mining practices to safeguard citizens and the environment. Some communities also negotiated agreements with developers. In the Town of Howard, Enron Oil and Gas acknowledged the negative impact of frac sand mining on property values and agreed to compensate property owners. In Pepin County, the county highway supervisors negotiated an agreement to force a mining company to pay for required upgrades to county roads, regulate truck travel volume, and deposit money in a special county account to pay for future road maintenance requirements.

The large oil and gas companies and their mining subsidiaries responded to these local control initiatives first by challenging the authority of local municipalities to regulate frac sand mining in court. But a unanimous decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld town's rights to local control -- Zwiefelhofer vs Town of Cooks Valley.

After losing in the courts, the mining interests found friends in the Wisconsin legislature to attempt to rewrite the laws and restrict local controls. Bills introduced by Senator Tiffany and Representative Ballweg would have prevented local municipalities from exercising any authority over the environmental, safety and health effects of mining operations and even removed the ability of town and county governments to negotiate road use agreements to maintain local roads under heavy use. These bills were defeated only after strong outcry from local government units, citizens groups, and the Wisconsin Town's Association.

Local control means citizens closest to the impact of decisions about the health, safety and well being of their communities should retain the power to make those decisions locally. That doesn't mean that state government and the legislature should do nothing to address issues related to industrial scale sand mining and processing in Wisconsin. The state legislature can support local decision making in a number of ways:

Close loopholes in existing reclamation laws to insure that mining companies and their owners remain responsible for environmental cleanup and restoration.

Commission and fund studies by the DNR and Wisconsin Department of Health about the health impacts of frac sand mining and processing. Recommend standards for local government adoption to regulate air and water quality.

Fund the DNR to provide staff to inspect all industrial scale sand on a regular basis and require air and water monitoring by mining and processing operators with appropriate thresholds aligned with NIOSH and OSHA standards.

Mandate the DNR to consider the overall impact on water quantity of all new permits for high capacity wells such as those required for frac sand processing.

Require full disclosure by operators of all chemicals -- including flocculants--used in mining and processing frac sand.

Require registration and reclamation of all bore holes drilled for sand exploration (before mining operations begin).

Create a Wisconsin Permanent Fund modeled after the Alaska Permanent Fund. Resources such as sand, iron ore, gold, water extracted from Wisconsin would require a certain amount of money be paid to the State. That money could be put into something like the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) and invested. Then each year every person in Wisconsin would get a payment from that fund.

If I could point to one positive impact that sand mining has had on western Wisconsin it is that it seems to draw neighbors and others together. Often from very different political views and economic status, citizens have come together to demand that our local officials and state representatives slow this down and protect their interests for a change. Their interests being anywhere from the air they breathe, the water they drink, the roads they drive, their property values and the noise levels. We might even ask if this is a blessing in disguise considering the very divisive political environment that we have been living in for the last few years.

Shouldn't we, at the very least, consider majority sentiment when considering policies related to mining? Is the will of the people being considered and respected? I also want us all to think about this important question: What sort of Wisconsin will we leave behind for our next generations?

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