SEPT 30 - Critical Public Comment Period Ends !

Demand Tough State Air & Water Quality Standards for the Frac Sand Industry

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

   The MPCA borrowed the language for aggregate/construction quarries in the draft for silica sand mining in Minnesota.... as the industry lobbyists were proposing during the last legislative session (that silica sand mining is just like aggregate mining that they've been doing for generations). 

  Now we need to lean together to make our energy felt.

Wishing you well,

Bonita

Demand Tough State Air & Water Quality Standards for the Frac Sand Industry

Critical Public Comment Period Ends Sept. 30 

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is taking public comments on how it should regulate the frac sand industry in order to protect air and water. The MPCA needs to hear from you about creating tough standards that put protecting public health and well-being before corporate profits. The frac sand industry complains loudly about any proposed regulation, claiming it is unneeded, while denying its history of polluting air and water and violating regulations. Frac sand corporations operate with a mentality of profit at the expense of the community and the land. Only tough rules aggressively enforced will change this.

In June, Land Stewardship Project members and others met with Gov. Mark Dayton and the MPCA Commissioner. At that meeting, Gov. Dayton told us that he wants tough standards done right. Recently, the Governor advocated a ban on frac sand mining for southeast Minnesota and tough standards for the rest of the state. The MPCA needs to follow through on the Governor’s instructions.

State Standards Must Protect our Air from Frac Sand Pollution. Frac sand is silica sand. Long-term exposure to low levels of silica dust can cause severe health problems including silicosis, an incurable disease that can kill. An effective strategy to regulate silica sand should have these components:

• Air quality permit required. A “Silica Sand Ambient Air Quality permit” must be created and required for all frac sand facilities (mines, processing and loading facilities, etc.). Requiring a permit to operate gives the MPCA leverage to enforce compliance. Without the threat of being able to shut the operation down by revoking the permit, frac sand facilities can ignore rules and pay fines while continuing to pollute. Meaningful setbacks from adjoining property lines, residences, schools, nursing homes, etc., should be required as part of the permit.

• Continuous ambient air quality monitoring. All frac sand facilities—mines, processing facilities and loading and transfer stations—should pay for the installation and maintenance of state-of-the-art continuous air monitoring equipment that is overseen by the MPCA. Facilities must not allow silica dust in the ambient air at their property line to exceed the level of safe exposure established by the Minnesota Department of Health. 

• Monitoring data is made public. Air monitoring results are available to the public in real time via the web.    

• Violations have meaningful and immediate consequences. Violations result in substantial fines and the scaling down of operations to make them come into compliance. Swift and meaningful consequences are the only way to ensure compliance from the industry. Repeated violations will result in revocation of the permit.

• Industry pays. The permit costs cover the cost of regulating the industry, including the air monitoring equipment.

State Regulations Must Protect our Water from Frac Sand Pollution. The processing of frac sand can involve the use of harmful chemicals and millions of gallons of water. Also, frac sand mining can open up conduits that allow surface pollution to enter into the groundwater quickly. This is especially true for southeast Minnesota’s sensitive karst geology. An effective strategy to protect water quality should have these components:

• Water quality permit required. Frac sand mines and frac sand processing facilities that use water should require an individual water quality permit that requires public notice and allows for public comment. No permits should be allowed within any well head protection area. All chemicals used by frac sand companies must be publicly disclosed. Industry claims of “proprietary information” cannot be allowed to trump the public’s right to know what chemicals they may be exposed to.

• Disruption of the hydrological function of the landscape must be considered. Frac sand mining could disturb thousands of acres of land in southeast Minnesota’s karst landscape. Karst geology is made up of fractured limestone and is typified by sinkholes that can allow surface pollution to enter groundwater immediately.  Disruption of the landscape through strip mining for frac sand threatens to create many more points of entry for surface pollution to enter the groundwater. This issue has to be addressed up front and cannot be done on a case-by-case basis. The Governor has said he supports a frac sand mining ban in this area of the state and protecting water quality is a good reason to simply declare this region off-limits to frac sand mining and processing.

Take Action! We need people to weigh in from all over Minnesota. While people living in southeast Minnesota and the Minnesota River Valley where frac sand mining is proposed or happening are most directly impacted, we all want to see these beautiful areas of the state protected. We know that without these type of strong regulations, the frac sand industry will continue its track record of abusing the land and people.

• Send your individual comments about this issue to the MPCA by Sept. 30 at 4:30 p.m. to: Nathan Brooks Cooley, MPCA, 520 Lafayette Road North, Saint Paul, MN 55155; phone: 651-757-2290; e-mail: natan.cooley@state.mn.us. Use the above points and add details that you think are important.

• Sign LSP’s comment letter by clicking HERE. LSP will submit a comment letter that we would like to be signed by hundreds of Minnesotans. 

• Forward this e-mail widely. Use you personal contacts to help us increase the number of people engaged and involved in this issue.

For more information on this issue, contact LSP's Bobby King at 612-722-6377 or bking@landstewardshipproject.org.

More background on this issue:

• Minnesota Department of Health information on frac sand.

•  MPCA Request for Comments on Planned Amendments to Rules Relating to Silica Sand Projects

• Also, read about LSP’s recently released report “The People’s EIS Scoping Document” that calls for the frac sand Environmental Impact Statement on the biggest frac sand mining project ever proposed in southeast Minnesota to be rigorous and comprehensive.