The Lisa Link: June 2014

Good strawberry crop this year

It's easy to remember how long we've lived in Colfax... six years. That's the age of our youngest daughter. I was seven months pregnant when we moved here from the larger city of Eau Claire.

Why did we move? Mostly it had to do with our kids. Our oldest was approaching middle school age, and we were concerned about him negotiating his adolescence in the setting of a large school, where drugs and violence and peer pressure might be more of a problem than what we'd experienced, growing up.

Our garden as of today

Space was a factor, too. We had a small yard and were located just a block off of a very busy road (Birch St.). It was hard to get to places we felt were safe for bike riding and outdoor play. Our house was nice enough, but the lower-income neighborhood we lived in had its share of thumping music, rental houses, and registered sex offenders. Larger lots in nicer neighborhoods were available but out of our price range.

Colfax landscape

So finding a house on a large wooded lot in the little town of Colfax, a mere 15 miles from Eau Claire, seemed like The Answer. Here we have room for an ambitious garden, wooded trails, and a few animals. The gently rolling countryside is beautiful. There are lots of trees, meadows, and farm fields. Natural springs, streams, and ponds abound. The school is decent and most of the neighbors we've met have been great.

So pretty here

But these same rolling hills that drew us to the area are now proving a complication. It turns out they are largely made of silica sand... a highly desirable resource for the nation's burgeoning frac mine industry.

I used to pass by a sand mine when I drove to work in Bloomer. It opened like a scar on the land, and it was not uncommon for me to pass seven or more loaded sand trucks as I entered town.

But that was Bloomer. It wasn't something close enough for me to see and hear and smell. It didn't really impact me, although all the extensive roadwork done around that sand mine was rather irritating. I remember wondering aloud with Jon whether the sand mine helped pay for any of that roadwork, since their heavy truck traffic was no doubt a factor in the wearing down of the road.

Our hills are alive... with silica sand

I wasn't even aware of the existence of a sand mine in the nearby town of Howard, located as it is on a road I don't happen to use. I became aware of that mining development only when a second mine in Howard was proposed. Because it turns out I live very close to this little town of Howard... and unfortunately, very close to the county line between Dunn and Chippewa counties. Unfortunate because Dunn has zoning ordinances and Chippewa does not.

aerial view of sand mine in Bloomer (taken from internet)

This border scenario is very likely a strategy on the part of mining companies. When a sand mine is constructed near a county line, there is less obligation to notify and / or appease the residents of the adjacent county (though those residents might be just as close to the mine as the people in the county the mine falls within). By the time I heard about the mine, a large piece of land had been purchased and an unknown (though likely, small) number of neighbors had leased out their land's mining rights.

Another internet photo of Bloomer sand mine

There was no big public announcement or discussion in an open forum. Representatives from a small Minnesota-based company (speculators) began talking to land owners individually and privately. No written documents were provided but there were lease agreements on laptops that were discussed and sometimes signed. Promises were made, but the company that's gathering the signatures intends to sell the land rights, once gained, to a larger company who will do the actual mining (and then proceed in whatever way they see fit).

Because no individual knew how many (if any) of their neighbors had signed the agreement, the assumption was out there that because there is serious money behind this project it might be a lot of neighbors who had signed. With the decrease of property value that comes along with living near an inevitable sand mine (about 30%), who wants to experience a total loss? No doubt some who signed weren't as much excited for their reward as scrambling to mitigate their losses.

This is what they do with our sand... a frac mine in Pennsylvania. Silica sand is blasted into crevices of rock to force out residual oil

It's hard to even say for sure what they signed (you know-- because of the secrecy), but likely it wasn't a very sweet deal. These leases typically mean the mining rights are sold for a large chunk of time-- decades-- and once sold, effectively become like a lien on your property... something that must be disclosed should it turn out you hate living by a sand mine and want to sell. Also, no money is given up front; it's all contingent on the success of the mine. And typically these are iron-clad contracts, virtually impossible for ordinary land owners to extract themselves from. They are designed by corporate lawyers who understand how to make an agreement sound benign (while inserting key meaningful phrases that make all the difference).

Ken Schmitt, farmer from town of Howard who protests mine

Anyway, I heard about the proposed sand mine near my home by chance, while talking to a neighbor. I began going to town meetings, and have become one of a small group of folks who are trying to find out more about this mine, let others know about it, and maybe slow down / de-rail the permit process a little. We've been talking to other groups in nearby communities that have already been through this, and have learned that while you can't outright stop a sand mine you CAN put up enough resistance (through zoning, ordinances, and negative public opinion) to make your area a less palatable area to start up a mine. We plan to continue attending town meetings (to make sure our board knows our concerns and acts in our best interests), put signs up in our yards, and hopefully get the word out to others to pay attention to what is actually a community & life-changing development for all of us.

Silica dust

As getting through to our town board becomes our focus, it is disheartening to hear that there is a legislative effort going on right now to de-rail local control of sand mines. Senator Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) and Representative Joan Ballweg (R-Markesan) introduced legislation that would bar local governments from regulating some aspects of non metallic mining, including its impacts on air quality, water, road use and reclamation. The bill was defeated, but it hasn't disappeared entirely. In fact, during our meeting last night, someone reported that they had heard there was a plan to sneak this legislation into the next budget. So we have to pay attention to what's going on at the state level, too!

Though no one wants the noise of explosives and heavy traffic that a mine brings, or the eyesore and loss of property value, most of us object to the mine because of health concerns. Our area has just one aquifer, and many of us have wells. We want our drinking water to remain clean. There is a lot of secrecy concerning what chemicals are used by sand mines and their processing plants.

Silica sand

Air quality is another concern. Apparently silica dust is so small that it doesn't really register in typical air quality tests... and small airborne particles can be dangerous and insidious to human health. It's a carcinogen, but silica dust is not really regulated. Also, because explosives are used in the extraction process, much of this sand dust is fractured and sharp... not rounded as it is in naturally weathered soil. That's potentially harmful for all of us, but especially horrible for those of us with asthma in our households.

It used to be that Wisconsin tried to preserve its natural resources because tourism is such a big part of the state economy-- and tourists like to fish, hunt, boat, camp, etc. in a beautiful outdoor setting. But there have been some unsettling political changes in the state, and now our governor has declared that "Wisconsin is open for business." Unfortunately, silica sand mining is a boom and bust industry that will only last a few years. It will bring a few jobs with it, but not enough to justify the permanent loss of our natural landscape. When a mine closes, the land can be "reclaimed"... but no one's promising to RESTORE it. Meanwhile, our DNR is weaker and more ineffective than ever. They can respond to complaints and violations once they can occur (as time allows), but they are not in a position to keep up with proactive testing of so many new sand mine sites. And because these are companies we're dealing with, who's to say they won't go bankrupt and walk away from large-scale environmental problems they may inadvertently cause?

Bottom line is that there's a lot of risk here, for relatively little financial gain (for those outside of the mining companies). Towns and counties end up with very little tax revenue from sand mines, and sand mines can get by without that many employees.

So anyway, on with our lives here in Colfax...