Currently, there are no official employment numbers for the state’s rapidly expanding frac sand industry. But the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, using job-site estimates developed by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, found that when existing mines and those being built are fully operating, the industry will employ about 2,780 people — a sizeable number given the state’s overall luckluster job picture.
Category: Environment
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Frac Sand Rush, Government, Health & Welfare
Wisconsin frac sand sites double
Frac sand fever has hit much of west-central Wisconsin, catching residents and local governments by surprise when demand for sand suddenly soared and permit applications began to pour in. The number of Wisconsin frac sand mining operations has more than doubled in the past year.
Posted inEnvironment, Frac Sand Rush
Map: Frac sand mining in Wisconsin, October, 2012
Five years ago, Wisconsin only had a handful of industrial sand facilities. Over the past two years, the increased demand for frac sand drove explosive growth in the state’s sand industry.
Posted inEnvironment, Government, Money & Politics
Sidebar: Agenda 21 movement leader came here to speak
One national guru of the Agenda 21 movement is Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center. The self-described “businessman, grassroots activist, writer and publisher” has been fighting against Agenda 21 for two decades.
Posted inEnvironment, Government, Money & Politics
Green schemes make activists see red
Opponents believe Agenda 21 is driving every last smidgen of Earth-friendly policy: Renewable energy. Land-use planning. Resource conservation. Even recycling. Every green tag is a red flag.
Posted inEnvironment, Government, Money & Politics
Sidebar: Lawmakers want to turn back clock on Smart Growth
Assembly Bill 303, introduced last fall by Republicans, would have allowed communities to opt out of Smart Growth, the state’s law setting the rules for developing local land-use plans, and make it easier for these plans to be repealed.
Posted inEnvironment, Frac Sand Rush
Sidebar: How a sand mine dealt with its Karner blues
What one frac-sand mining company is doing to help protect Wisconsin’s endangered Karner blue butterfly.
Posted inEnvironment, Frac Sand Rush
Permits: What a frac sand mine needs
Overview of permits required to operate a frac-sand mine.
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Frac Sand Rush
Frac sand in Wisconsin: Links and contacts
Resources to learn more.
Posted inEnvironment, Frac Sand Rush
Are frac sand miners failing to check for rare butterfly?
There’s a new wrinkle in Wisconsin’s fast-growing frac sand mining: It turns out that an endangered butterfly, the Karner blue, lives in the same region. And some companies may be failing to check for the butterfly as they move ahead with mining operations.
Posted inEnvironment
Wetlands bill eases development, but worries environmentalists
Republicans in the state Legislature have unveiled a long-awaited bill to revamp state wetlands policy. The proposal, the subject of a Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism report published in November, would make it easier for developers to infill wetlands in exchange for what’s known as “mitigation,” the creation of new wetlands.
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Government, Money & Politics
Wisconsin wetlands seen as threat to jobs
On Feb. 2, 2011, the Legislature voted to exempt a little patch of land, less than a mile down the road from the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field, from the state’s wetlands rules, once called “the strongest wetland protections in the country.” The bill, passed on World Wetlands Day, will let up to three acres of the so-called Bergstrom wetland be filled with no additional permits or process.