mining

Minnesota legislature to trout and citizens: Drop dead; New report challenges WI happy mining job numbers

By Sally Jo Sorensen, Bluestem Prairie

A frac sand industry-friendly compromise has been reached in the Minnesota legislature over mining near trout streams. Meanwhile, a new report commissioned and published by the Wisconsin Farmers Union, the Wisconsin Towns Association and the Minneapolis-based IATP suggests that industrial sand mining falls short as an engine of job creation.

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Bluestem Prairie

Open veins of Big Stone County, Minnesota; or, the idea of order in Ortonville

By Sally Jo Sorensen, Bluestem Prairie

In a recent radio interview broadcast by KDIO, Ortonville mayor Steve Berkner inveighed against "intimidation tactics" that had supposedly by used by "special interest" opponents of the Strata Mining Corporation's plan to open a granite quarry in a cow pasture that contains some of Big Stone County's namesake granite outcroppings.

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Bluestem Prairie

Trying not to stick my head in the sand

By Steve Clemens, Mennonista

After walking two miles behind a “Stop Frac Sand” banner, we arrived at the Port of Winona where 18-wheel trucks were unloading their cargoes of silica frac sand on to barges in the Mississippi River to be shipped to natural gas fracking operations in Texas or other locations. A second group of friends walked over three miles to another Winona, MN site where already-mined frac sand was being washed before loaded on to the trucks that were arrive at the port. With the support of dozens of other friends, 35 of us were arrested on trespass charges as we nonviolently blocked the trucks this morning in what may have been the largest protest to date against fracking.

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Mennonista

Preferred Sands of Minnesota touts "maintaining and sustaining" while Wisconsin site's runoff woes continue

By Sally Jo Sorensen, Bluestem Prairie

The chief refrain repeated by the sorrowful violins of the lobbyists for Minnesota's sand mining industry and its allies is that if the state legislator puts additional safeguards in place for our water and communities, the industry will fail to thrive in Minnesota as it has in Wisconsin.

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Bluestem Prairie

Meaning for Minnesota of the federal fracking ruling in California

By Greg Laden, Minnesota Progressive Project

On Monday, a federal judge ruled that a pair of fracking projects in California had to stall while stakeholders re-examined potential environmental effects. The judge determined that insufficient attention had been given to the negative impacts of these projects which would include fracking and horizontal drilling. US District Court Judge Paul Grewal said that the Bureau of Land Management, from which the leases were sought…

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Minnesota Progressive Project

Representative Hansen discusses silica sand mining in Save the Bluffs video update

By Sally Jo Sorensen, Bluestem Prairie

One of the best-known (and liked) lobbyists at the Minnesota State capitol is John Kaul, whose candid photos capture the essence, drama and frequent exhaustion of the legislative process. He's also a pretty decent documentary filmmaker who explored the life of Minnesota's first woman state supreme court justice.

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Bluestem Prairie

Property tax relief nearly overshadowed by new 'sand tax'

By Lee Ann Schutz Wahi, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Staying true to their word that property tax relief would be among the session’s top priorities, the DFL majority has laid out a plan that would have more homeowners qualifying for a property tax refund. However, a proposed tax expansion on the state’s budding frac sand mining operations — contained in the same bill — pushed tax relief to the sidelines during testimony.

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University of Minnesota professor studies ways to clean and recycle fracking's wastewater

By Judy Woodward, Park Bugle

University of Minnesota professor of biochemistry Larry Wackett. (Park Bugle photo Lori Hamilton)

Fracking is in the news these days. The process involves extracting natural gas from shale rock formations deep below the earth’s surface by hydraulic fracturing—essentially blasting out the gas under high pressure with chemically treated water.

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Frac sand news: Hansen and Schmit bills advance; SEMN permitting; WI project threatens Riverway

By Sally Jo Sorensen, Bluestem Prairie

While bills related to regulating the frac sand industry make their way through the Minnesota state legislature, sand mining continues to generate headlines in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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Bluestem Prairie
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