The sand mining threat.

Back in 2012, I made the short trek out to the beautiful bluff and hill country of western Wisconsin. I was there to cover a community meeting in Buffalo County, which was considering whether to allow a company called Glacier Sand to begin open pit sand mining operations there.

The meeting was held in a school gym, and, for such a small community, it was packed. Representatives from the company ran down all the ways that this massive operation would be good for the community’s economy, and how they would work to offset its environmental impact.

Then residents got up to ask their questions, and it became clear that the community was deeply divided on the issue. While most were cautiously optimistic about the jobs the operation might bring to the area, many were also concerned about the irrevocable loss of natural ecosystems, even with the planned reclamation projects. After all, reclamation can’t replicate what thousands of years of natural development produce. People were worried about water and air pollution from the silicate being mined, and about water table depletion from the high capacity wells needed by the operation.

There was precedent for the concern, as residents pointed to problems in nearby Trempealeau and Barron Counties, where mining debris was being washed into streams and wetlands, resulting eventually in formal letters of violation from the Department of Natural Resources.

Glacier Sand’s permit application eventually was denied by the county, but that was just one victory in the midst of an otherwise overwhelming boom of frac sand mining in the state. Currently, Wisconsin has 128 industrial sand facilities, 92 of which are active. The state is prime real estate for the industry, as our bluffs and hills contain the kind of fine particulate sand necessary to do hydraulic fracking for natural gas in other parts of the country. Wisconsin currently holds 75% of the frac sand in the entire United States.

There already are major concerns with safety and pollution when it comes to the fracking part of the process — most notably, severe water pollution.

Perhaps the consequence with the longest lasting impact, however, is the loss of the habitat where mines set up shop. A new sand mining project in Jackson and Monroe Counties would span 132 acres, and destroy entirely 16.6 acres of pristine forested wetlands — the most of any sand project since 2008.

Despite this, Cathy Stepp’s neutered DNR has given its tentative approval to the project, pending a public hearing in Tomah on April 18 and sign-off from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Republican-led government overall seems not to care much for environmental stewardship. A recent pollution case against 3M was settled by Attorney General Brad Schimel with no fine attached, a first in at least 25 years. Instead, the company agreed to spend $665,000 on the pollution control equipment that failed repeatedly at its two plants in Wausau.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin stands to continue losing major sections of pristine wetlands, areas that are crucial in helping to reduce impacts from storm damage and flooding, maintaining water quality, recharging groundwater and storing carbon, while also being important sites for biodiversity.

We should be making every effort to fortify our natural areas, not degrading them in a misguided and myopic effort to make a few quick bucks.

In the hills of western Wisconsin, this is very much a battle for the heart and soul of the land.