Sand Frac Mining in Western Wisconsin

What is Sand Frac Mining?

Sand Frac Mining, or hydrofracking, is a process where sand is used to extort oil and gas that is locked thousands of feet underground. A hole is drilled down deep to where the resources lay and then frac sand, chemicals, and water are forced into the cracks. This is also known as blasting. The high pressure also creates new cracks. Once this step is completed the water and chemicals are removed which just leaves the sand. With the sand now holding open the cracks, or fissures, the gas and oil can now be pulled out and brought back to the surface. The frac sand used in this process has to have strict qualifications. It needs to be almost pure quartz, very well rounded, extremely hard, and of uniform size. The pressure the sand needs to withstand is between 6,000 psi to 14,000 psi. The majority of the sand used is Wisconsin’s silica sand because of how well it meets these qualifications. The process can be seen in figure 1.

Figure 1
The Process of How Fracking Works

 

 

 

Sand Frac Mining in Wisconsin

            Right now Western Wisconsin is the most popular site for sand frac mining. Even though people have been sand mining in Wisconsin for over 100 years permits for sand mining sites have increased significantly. There are currently over 60 mining operations open in the badger state. The sites stretch from the most southern Columbia County to all the way up north in Burnett County. In figure 2 you can see on the map the correlation of why the mining sites are where they are.  

            With the booming of these sand mining sites a lot of environmental impacting questions are raised. The Wisconsin DNR states that there are two types of air emissions come from these operations. “The first is from dust that may be emitted during the mining and handling of sand. The second is from various pollutants emitted from equipment used to mine, handle, and/or process the sand.”(dnr.wi.gov). In the article “Mining Companies Invade Wisconsin for Frac-Sand” from http://ecowatch.com/2012/04/27/mining-companies-invade-wisconsin-for-frac-sand/   it talks about how these mining sites are taking away the beautiful, hometown feeling landscapes of the state of Wisconsin. Water pollution and Oil spill contamination are also a few of the potential problems that some nearby citizens have faced or might face.

 

Figure 2
This Map Shows How Wisconsin is Prime Real Estate for Fracking.

GIS In Sand Frac Mining

            I believe the use of GIS in this field would be very favorable. You could keep data on which routes the transportation truck are going, see how the landscape is changing after a certain amount of mining, or have it keep an eye on the different environmental issues that surround the controversial topic. In creating maps with all this information the public can have a better chance of gaining more knowledge on what is really going on in their area.

 

Sources:

http://wcwrpc.org/frac-sand-factsheet.pdf

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Mines/Deposit.html

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/mines/silica.html

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Mines/documents/SilicaSandMiningFinal.pdf