Midwest Environmental Advocates recently filed two new legal challenges to air pollution permits issued by the state to frac sand mining companies. The permits don’t adequately protect local citizens from silica dust created from mining quartz sand used in hydrofracking for oil and gas.
Unfortunately there aren’t enough staff from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to monitor and regulate frac sand mining. (There are at least 115 permitted or functioning frac sand mines and processing plants in the state.) Consequently homeowners and farmers in western Wisconsin are left with many questions about their family’s health and the value of their property.
