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Gas and Oil Boom Hits Minnesota and Wisconsin
The oil and natural gas boom in the U.S. has led to countless changes across the country. Record-low natural gas prices have contributed to over 100 planned coal-fired power plant shutdowns. Drilling and fracking projects have skyrocketed in states like North Dakota, Pennsylvania and New York, bringing jobs (though not always local) and economic boosts, but at the expense of other struggles for rural communities.
Political debates have raged from federal approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to Vermont’s fracking ban. Our country has become a net oil-products exporter* for the first time since 1949 and may become a net gas exporter in the next decade.
Regardless of your opinion on these and other issues, here's one underlying fact about the boom: it has hit citizens, communities and governments fast and hard. This has left people scrambling to decide how to deal with the impacts of drilling and fracking in their communities, and whether they want to deal with them in the first place.
Although there are no oil or gas deposits in Minnesota or Wisconsin, we are not immune to the impact of the boom. Small and almost perfectly round sand granules, a valuable resource to the fracking industry, can be found in abundance in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. This has caused a mini-boom in frac sand in the area, along with a handful of problems in affected communities and even along routes that get the sand from the mines to gas fields in North Dakota.
These issues range from public health and safety to transportation to environmental concerns. Back in May, a leak was discovered at a frac sand mine on a tributary of the St Croix River, depositing sediment into the river and wetlands near the Minnesota border. One Wisconsin county is asking for state aid to improve local roads to handle the increased truck traffic. Uncovered train cars and heavy trucks transporting the sand across Minnesota to North Dakota fields have aroused health and safety concerns among affected residents.
Local groups have organized, city councilmembers and county reps have debated, and Minnesota state agency officials recently visited Winona to educate citizens, talk about concerns with frac sand, and discuss ways that mining and transporting the material can be managed or regulated.
As speakers at the Winona meeting stated, more research is needed, dialogue between citizens and government is crucial, and working with industry to mitigate concerns is important. This is especially true given the speed at which this industry has developed, and considering that the fracking boom has seemingly just begun.
*This blog has been updated to clarify that the U.S. is a net exporter of oil-products.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Economic Growth Energy Natural Gas Midwestern States
3 Comments
June 28, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Scilica sand is finer than beach sand. You can get scilicosis from breathing in the dust(it can carry 5 miles). Frack drillers are now being diagnosed w/scilicosis from breathing the air while they are drilling. This is a huge industry(WI shipped 153million tons last year)w/virtually no regulation. The sand after it is dug up is washed with chemicals which is then stored in pools in the ground.This is mixed w/other chemicals to make it inert & it is then placed back into abandoned mines but when it gets wet it re-activates in the ground(can you say aquifer?). You also have to deal with transport. One mine in Chippewa Falls, WI uses 550 heavy trucks per day which tears up country roads. Counties all over WI & MN are fighting these mines but they are up against Big Oil.
June 28, 2012 at 9:31 am
They’re digging up sand so how bad can that be? The place to focus is the drilling side where the there’s real hazards to deal with.
Vivian Klauber says:
June 28, 2012 at 2:34 pm
It is our obligation as citizens to educate our state and national representatives about the negative influences and consequences of gas and oil industries.
Please contact your senators and representatives and inform them of the dangers to ourselves and ESPECIALLY our children from the by-products (particulates = silicosis)of this industry.
Encourage them to support solar and wind technology that is clean and non toxic.
Ask them to avoid payoffs from Big gas and oil and send the exploiters back to Oklahoma and Texas where they came from.
Minnesota and Wisconsin have an abundance of clean water and wildlife. We assume responsibility for our land and natural habitats. We need to preserve what we have. Money is always persuasive but the health and productivity of our people is more important.
If we can drive stakes into our trees to prevent deforestation we can also despoil their equipment or fill in their holes.
WE are responsible for our environment. Assume that role by convincing your MN State and National representatives to go SOLAR AND WIND rather than oil and gas. Sulphur is a byproduct of drilling. Think about breathing that every day. Think about your kids breathing that air on their way to school or while playing outside.
Please act soon.