These mines are becoming increasingly prevalent throughout Wisconsin as hydrofracking becomes more popular nationwide. University of Wisconsin geological engineering professor Craig Benson said the state has a high prevalence of silica sand, which is necessary for fracking sites in other parts of the country.

“We have these wonderful sandstone deposits which have really well-rounded, hard, uniformly-sized sand particles,” said. “They’re a jewel for frac sands and we just have lots of them, geologically, particularly in the western half of the state.”

Benson said these types of silica sands are unique to this part of the country and are useful in hydrofracking because they hold open the cracks in bore holes of fracking sites better than normal sands. This has made Wisconsin’s silica sands highly profitable in recent years, he said.

But this profitability comes with a cost, Stacy Harbaugh, Communications and Outreach coordinator of Midwest Environmental Advocates said. She said people have concerns about the impact on health and the health of the environment in places nearby frac sand mines and links found between silica dust and cancer.

“People are calling it the new strip mining because it takes out a large surface area in places these mines are located,” Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh said frac sand mining is changing the landscape of these regions of Wisconsin, and not in a good way. She said there are negative impacts when soil is disturbed on a grand scale and the large loss of trees has created issues with pollution due to storm water runoff.

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