Sand Mining

Sand Mining Operations Hundreds of Miles Away in Minnesota and Wisconsin Could Impact Water and Air Quality in Western Pennsylvania

Sand mining operations hundreds of miles away in Minnesota and Wisconsin could affect water and air quality in western Pennsylvania, according to a recent report by the Civil Society Institute's Boston Action Research, a Boston human rights advocacy group.

What makes the findings of the report significant to the western Pennsylvania region is the sand itself. Frac sand, used in oil and natural gas drilling, is a high-purity quartz sand with very durable and very round grains, according togeology.com. It cannot be crushed.

Hydraulic fracturing is used in drilling to produce petroleum fluids, such as oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids, from rock that lacks adequate pore space for the fluids to flow to a well. The process creates fractures in the rock, which do not deflate once the rock is fracked and the natural gas is extracted. The sand, which comes predominantly from Minnesota and Wisconsin, keeps the fractures in the rock from deflating and enables drillers to extract more natural gas.

Frac sand that is mined in the Midwest is cleaned and treated before it is transported to drilling sites. The problem, though, is silica dust, which comes from the mined sand.

"There is silica in the sand," said John Stolz, a Duquesne University biology professor and head of its Center for Environmental Research and Education, explaining it is the silica that holds the sand together.

Silica can cause silicosis, a lung disease caused by breathing in crystalline silica dust, he said. The silica can embed itself deep into a person's lung tissue and cannot be expelled by coughing. Silicosis is the most common lung disease, and there is no known cure.

Even the use of a respirator does not always ensure adequate protection, Stolz said. The report said intense exposure to crystalline silica can cause disease within a year, but it can take 10 to 15 years before symptoms develop. Besides silicosis, silica exposure also has been linked to emphysema and bronchitis, chronic renal disease, as well as autoimmune diseases such as lupus, hyperthyroidism and rheumatoid arthritis, the report said.

Because Pennsylvania is now a top-five natural-gas-producing state, the Civil Society Institute's report estimates that more sand is not only going to be needed in the state, but in the nation as a whole as the industry grows.

Source: Herald Standard

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