Exercise 4: Sand Mining in Western Wisconsin Overview

Introduction

Frac Sand Mining in Wisconsin has been occurring for over 100 years, but recently their has been an increase in the mining for the use of hydraulic fracturing.  The sand mining is primarily located in western Wisconsin as you can see in figure 2 below, because of the abundant amount of sandstone that fits the needs of the hydraulic fracturing mines.  Throughout the semester our GIS (Geographic Information Systems) II class will analyze and investigate the impacts of sand mining in western Wisconsin. This post will be an introduction to sand mining with the following post being more detailed into the project.  

Hydraulic Fracturing 

Figure 1: This image shows the drill process and how
the sand is used to keep the cracks open.
http://www.h2odistributors.com/contaminant-fracking.asp 

First a background on what hydraulic fracturing is will be given because the frac sand's primary use is for hydraulic fracturing.  This process involves drilling thousands of feet beneath the earth's surface to create cracks in rock.  This process is used to extract oil or natural gas in places like Texas, North Dakota, and others.  After the the cracks in the rocks are created the frac sand, along with water and chemicals, is pumped below to keep the cracks open so the oil and natural gas can be extracted.  With recent technological advancements, horizontal drilling, it is possible to extract oil and natural gas that was previously not available along with need for fuel is causing the demand for frac sand from Wisconsin to rise.

Frac Sanding Mining in Wisconsin

Figure 2: Locations of Frac Sand Mines and Sandstone in Wisconsin
http://curiousterrain.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/frac-sand-in-wisconsin/

Wisconsin has an a great amount of resources of sand and has been mined in Wisconsin since the 19th century for many different uses.  Frac sand is silica sand or silicon dioxide SiO2, quartz.  It has many uses including: paving roads, filtering drinking water, and used in the hydraulic fracturing process.  Most sand is mined and recent demand is used for the of hydraulic fracturing process  The sand deposits and mines are primarily located in western Wisconsin, as seen if figure 2 below.  Because this mining is taking place so close to home our GIS project and the mining being a 'hot topic' it will have a significance.

Figure 3: http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Mines/documents/
SilicaSandMiningFinal.pdf

However, not all silica sand can be used for hydraulic fracturing, it has to meet a specific need.  Wisconsin is lucky enough to have an abundant amount of sand that can meet this needs as illustrated in red in figure 3 below. The removal of this sand from landscapes involves the destruction of land and along with all mines cause environmental problems and hazards.

Impacts of Frac Sand Minding 

Although sand mining  can be very beneficial it has many environment impacts which will be a study through out the semester.

Air Impacts: dust can be released into the air from handling the sand and also pollutants from the equipment used to mine will be released into the air.  This can effect near by farmers or communities which live near the farm.

Water Resources: the mine has the chance of impacting ground water, rivers, and streams by causing them to change path or pollution.  Wells used by near by farmers have the potential to decrease because the ground water has shifted from the mining.  The mine also can impact the runoff of water because of the removal of land, the streams and rivers can pick up sediment when running through a mine, contaminating the water source.  The sand mines also need a lot of water to wash the sand before it is sent to the hydraulic fracturing mine.  This cause the depletion of lakes, rivers, streams and ground water greatly impacting the surrounding area.

Deforestation: to get the sand forest cover must be removed for the mining to take place.  This reduced wildlife habitat and causes them to find a new home.

Mine's location: The location of the mine impacts near by farmers.  Because almost all mines are located in the agricultural fields of western Wisconsin, this cause the mines to buy land and sometimes cause families to be moved.  The noise that also comes from a mine can effect communities wild life and hunting areas.

How GIS will be used in the project

GIS can be used in this project to evaluate the locations of specific mines.  We can also use GIS to detect where the right places or wrong places to build mines may be.  By using land cover data it these places can be predicted.  The following posts will describe how GIS is used when analyzing this project. 

Sources

http://www.h2odistributors.com/contaminant-fracking.asp

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Mines/documents/SilicaSandMiningFinal.pdf

http://curiousterrain.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/frac-sand-in-wisconsin/

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/frac-sand-mining-splits-communities-b9962665z1-217312971.html