lifestyle

While the City of Wabasha voted this week to deny local citizens an independent environmental review of what will be the state's largest dedicated truck-to-rail hub for frac sand, officials in the town of 2,500 are still working to attach restrictions to the facility that are designed to protect air quality, traffic flows, noise and quality of life.

It's still a work in progress, but the city has released five pages of proposed restrictions for the facility, which will move 1.2 million tons of frac sand per year to oil and gas "fracking'' wells in North Dakota and Texas. The sand will be mined in Buffalo County, Wisc., and possibly Minnesota.

• The company, Superior Sand Systems Inc. of Alberta, Canada, must control silica sand dust at or below levels acceptable to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
• Air monitoring will be funded by the company.
• The company must keep noise at or below MPCA-accepted levels.
• Daily truck trips capped at 400 per day.
• Sand in trucks and rail cars must be kept covered.
• The company must pay for a traffic impact study, stick to recommended routes and pay for any necessary road improvements.
• All conditions of the eventual Conditional Use Permit will be subject to city verification.

Superior Sand Systems Inc., the same company that hired a public zoning administrator to scout land in Minnesota and Wisconsin for frac sand mining, has won a key battle in Wabasha, Minn., for a truck-to-rail loading facility. 

The company said it will consider mining frac sand in Minnesota to go with three quarries in Buffalo County, Wisconsin. The rail hub has capacity to ship 1.2 million tons a year of finished frac sand.

The 11.5-acre project near the Mississippi River, about a mile from the National Eagle Center, won't generate any new  tax base for the city, which has worked hard over the past 20 years to attract tourists. It will produce 18 new jobs at the site and could create truck traffic of up to 600 trips a day.

Click here for the Star Tribune story.

Interested in the geology behind the controversial sand boom spreading across southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin? Then this talk's for you.

Frac sand is the latest topic up for discussion Monday in a series of Minnesota Geological Society lectures. The Minnesota Geological Survey's Tony Runkel will discuss "Fracking Sands of Minnesota and Wisconsin" at the University of Minnesota's Keller Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 12. For more details, click here.

There are many anti-frac sand signs along the Mississippi River in the Maiden Rock and Stockholm areas.

Recently, a new stencil -- "Frac off" -- has been added to the “Save our bluff” signs.

Many inland areas in western Wisconsin feature pro-mining signs that say "Sand = Jobs"

Star Tribune photo by Connie Nelson

Despite short-term, localized swings in frac sand activity in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the long-term, underlying demand for the mineral continues to soar.

Just last week, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management auctioned oil and gas leases for 94,676 acres of land in northeastern Montana.

The $16 million auction sets up a major new territory for hydraulic fracturing, the drilling technique that is about to make America the world's leading producer of crude oil.

Each new fracking well will consume 1,600 tons of crush-resistant silica sand.

 In North Dakota alone, where 8,000 wells are currently pumping oil, another 28,000 wells are expected to be added over the next 15 to 25 years.

Last week's oil and lease auction of land in McCone County, Montana, was dominated by Donco Inc. of San Antonio, Texas. Donco is a holding of Shale Exploration LLC, also of Texas.