Wisconsin county shuts down frac-sand operation 'running wild'
When the feds and the states adbicate their responsibilities, locals step in ...
http://www.startribune.com/local/278463561.html
Wisconsin’s Trempealeau County regulators say the operation has been dumping polluted wastewater into an unlined pond.
A Wisconsin frac-sand mine that was “running wild” and dumping polluted wastewater into an unlined pond against regulations has been shut down by Trempealeau County.
The Guza Pit, four miles south of Independence, Wis., had been operating without a permit and was shut down Monday with a “stop-work” order from county regulators. It could face fines when the situation is sorted out, said Kevin Lien, who heads the county’s zoning office.
The episode illustrates the challenges local regulators have faced as large and small mining operations, often run by absentee owners, have cropped up in rural jurisdictions across Wisconsin and Minnesota due to the Upper Midwest’s frac-sand boom. The crush-resistant silica sand found in parts of the two states is an essential ingredient for the technique known as “fracking” that has set off a drilling resurgence in North Dakota and other parts of the U.S. and Canada.
Neighbors alerted the county and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to activity at the Guza site because they believed it hadn’t received permission to operate after being annexed by the city of Independence early last month. “They are just running wild, with no permit at all,” Lien said.
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