GIS II: Sand Mining in Western Wisconsin

Goal

The purpose of this post is to give background information on sand mining in Wisconsin.  This is in order to prepare for an upcoming lab being done in Geography 337- GIS II.  

Background

Frac sand mining (also known as hydraulic fracturing)  in Wisconsin has been going on for about 100 years now and has many different uses.  Sand mining is used for creating filter beds for drinking water and waste water treatment, glass manufacturing, uses in the petroleum industry, and more.  Frac sand is quartz sand with a specific grain size and shape and is suspended in fluid.  The frac sand is used for extracting natural gas and crude oil from rock formations.  The sand is injected into fractures of the earth which are closed or not fully opened.  The sand grains open up the fractures in order to extract the oil and gas within them.  

Frac sand mining has only recently boomed in Wisconsin in the past five or so years.  This industry is huge in Wisconsin because of the sand found in mostly the western half of the state.  The recent boom in the industry has caused any problems for Wisconsin and other states in the Midwest being used for their sand.  Wisconsin has very few laws set in place when it comes to sand mining and these laws are very infrequently enforced.  Sand mining also has great environmental hazards that come along with it.  It causes air pollution, water pollution, erosion, and more.  This industry has pros and cons, but does not have enough laws in order to keep those in check.

Figure 1: Sand mining in Wisconsin.

Pictured above in Figure 1 is a map of sand mining area in Wisconsin and also areas where the sand is found throughout Wisconsin.  Since this map was created in 2012, many news frac sand mining sites have been created throughout the state.

GIS Applications

There are many applications when GIS is used in frac sand mining.  For example, we could create a map similar to the one pictured above of where sand mining sites are throughout the state.  We could then add data about where air and water pollution are the greatest throughout the state and see if the data displays a correlation to the two.  GIS data can also help us decide as to where the next ideal sand mining site could be place in the state.  We can look at data on where mining sites already exist and where environmental hazards are greatest to decide where to go next.  There are many applications where GIS is used in frac sand mining, whether they are seen as good or bad.

Sources

https://wgnhs.uwex.edu/wisconsin-geology/frac-sand-mining/

http://wcwrpc.org/frac-sand-factsheet.pdf

http://conservationvoters.org/issues/frac-sand-mining/

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/mines/sand.html