Frac sand mining in Wisconsin avoids County Rules and Regulations!

While one state senator wants to make frivolous lawsuits easier by overregulating wind farms, there are no Republican legislators worried about frac sand mining companies avoiding rules that local residents need to control noise, dust and the mining hours.

While some will claim money from mining companies does not corrupt our politicians, or make them pick winners and losers, the evidence says otherwise…in a very convincing way.  Here's the audio:

WPR: Companies mining frac sand have begun using annexation as a way to get around regulations they dislike. Two mines have used the tactic in Trempealeau County, but the idea is spreading to other parts of the state. When a company wants to mine frac sand in an unzoned township, the rules they follow for things like reclamation and hours of operation are written by the county. But in 2012, the city of Arcadia Sands, which is located in the town of Arcadia, convinced the city leaders to annex its land, making Trempealeau County’s rules null and void. Because of this, the mine got lighter regulations and the city got new tax revenue. But town board chair Ron Tuschner says they got nothing: “So, the basic loser is the municipality of where this land is taken from and that, in this case, is the Town of Arcadia.”

Tuschner says now the mine can operate in his town all night long, but eventually they will stop getting the tax revenue. He says they tried to fight the annexation but legally there is nothing a town can do to block it.

Avoiding rules and regulations for corporate profits continues throughout the state, and will only get worse:

Another sand mine owned by Preferred Sands was annexed last year by the Town of Blair in Trempealeau County. Now, a sand processing plant in the Barron County Town of Dovre is in the process of being annexed by the Village of New Auburn.