The gas drilling industry is known for the repetition of its mantra that hydraulic fracturing fluids are composed mostly of water and sand; if pressed hard enough, they’ll admit there’s a few staggeringly toxic chemicals in there, too. And because so much water is used, and the chemicals are so toxic, and therefore so much toxic waste is created, the focus of the opposition has been on water and toxins.
Sand seems so harmless, so inert, that frequently it’s not given a second thought. But sand has repercussions of its own, particularly on the communities near where it’s mined and processed.
Chippewa Falls, in Wisconsin, is one of those communities. In its own voice:
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“Chippewa Falls is a city of 13,054 in Northwestern Wisconsin. It is historically a technology town, the birthplace of Seymour Cray and the development of Cray computers. Unfortunately, this area also has an abundance of the kind of specialized sand (called “frac”sand) used in the fracturing process by oil and gas companies to increase production. CSP will need four sand mines in surrounding areas, bringing the sand into Chippewa Falls for processing, in order to run their plant at full capacity. The town of Howard is fighting plans for the first mine.
“Background: In May of 2008 the The Chippewa Herald writes about the “new industry” for Chippewa Falls. This is the first public announcement of a planning process that had been going on behind the scenes for approximately a year. The 90 acres of land within the city limits (a first in Wisconsin) had already been annexed and zoned heavy industrial. An interesting sideline here is how city and county government can blindside the citizens.
“So what are the advantages? None. 20 jobs at the plant site, truckers that live in other towns, and with a TIF designation, it will be 6 or 7 years before the city and county see a tax benefit. What are the problems? A lot. The proposed plant will be ¼ of a mile to a mile from housing projects, schools, a 318-acre park and zoo, a hospital, a day care center, and light industry – some utilizing “clean rooms” may have to relocate.
“Damaged and lost wetlands, toxic runoff at the plant and mine site, damage to the aquifer from blasting are all possibilities, and have been reported at other sites. Some economic concerns: the costs of road/rail maintenance, the loss of other safe, clean and green industry, decreased property values, increased health care costs, and of vital importance, loss of land for family farms. Once this plant is built it cannot be “unbuilt”. In the end, the mined agricultural land cannot be returned to productive agricultural use.
“We have been told that 560 trucks and 70 train cars a day will use our roads and tracks. Health concerns center around crystalline silica dust inhalation (a carcinogen), diesel particulates, congested truck traffic, as well as emissions from both the sand plant and a future resin plan. We do not have information on how far these particulates can travel. Wildlife will be displaced by a plant that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with continuous noise and flashing lights. Many of our tree lined hillsides and scenic waterways will be gone.
“This is not a done deal. Anyone can help.”
From http://ccc-wis.com/page112/page112.html
Learn much more surfing http://ccc-wis.com/index.html
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Does any of this sound familiar? In fact, does any of it NOT sound familiar? It seems that the same problems intended for us, here at the sand’s destination, are to be imposed on those who live at its source. Turns out that you don’t have to live over natural gas deposits to have your life ruined by hydraulic fracturing.
How, you wonder, do its advocates (most of whom have a financial interest in promoting it) get away with the claim that natural gas a “clean fuel” when so much stuff – water, chemicals, sand – has to be hauled by diesel-powered trains and semis from as far as halfway across the country in order to get the gas out of the ground. Natural gas is a dirty fuel, mined through the combined efforts of many dirty enterprises.
Help these folks in Chippewa Falls, by helping ourselves. It’s time to ban horizontal drilling with high-volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in New York State, the USA, the world.
Tags: community, corporate welfare, mining, processing, processing complex, sand
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