Geog 337: GIS II: Sand Mining in Western Wisconsin

Background

What is Frac Sand?

Figure 1. Picture of frac sand shown with a penny for scale, photo originally from Star Tribune

Frac sand is a particular type of high quality sand that can be utilized in hydrofracking. In hydrofracking, after drilling, explosives are used to create small cracks that the gas flows through. Frac sand, because of its small size and high density can keep these fractures open after fluid pressure is released. Frac sand mining has rapidly increased in western Wisconsin, due to the demand for frac sand caused by the increased use of hydrofracking.

Figure 2. On left counties with current frac sand mining operation or high potential for frac mines from, civilsocietyinstitute.org. On the right, the extent of frac sand in Wisconsin from, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey fact sheet

Issues associated with sand frac mining in Western Wisconsin

Many people have various concerns with frac mining, but the most debated issues are generally water quality, air quality, and financial issues.

Water issues: mining operations can use and possibly pollute large amounts of water

Air Quality issues: Silica dust can potentially cause damage to the lungs, depending on amount and duration of exposure

Financial issues: Mining communities may have variable economic effects, potentially increasing available high wage jobs, but also potentially damaging roads and other infrastructure and decreasing neighboring real estate value.

An example of how communities can react to sand mining can be seen in the video posted below:

GIS project in frac sand mining

The unprecedented growth of frac sand mining has raised new social and environmental concerns. We will be exploring the suitability and risk of sand mining using GIS, by using publicly available data for our study area of Trempealeau County (Figure 3). In doing this, we aim to study the issues and find more information regarding these various concerns.