Gathering data

To begin this project we need to have data (figure 1) on our area of interest. The data we are interest in will be for Trempealeau County, Wisconsin and the surrounding area and will be associated with varying aspects of frac sand mining. This will require gathering data from several different sources which will result in varied formats and procedures associated with gathering and implementing the data. Some of the data of interest are land use, railroad lines, local geology and soils and the location of sand mines.

The first data we downloaded was on the railroads from the national atlas website (http://www.nationalatlas.gov/). The file was an eOO format, railroad map for the 48 conterminous states. The eOO format is an arc info coverage map. Next we visited the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) national map website (http://nationalmap.gov/viewers.html.) where we obtained land cover data for Trempealeau County and the national elevation dataset. The elevation dataset is a 1/3 arc second arcgrid digital elevation model. It was received as two individual tiles that we were able to mosaic together in arcmap. Next we went to the United States Department of Agriculture’s geospatial data gateway (http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/) where we gathered data on cropland for Wisconsin. Last we used the Natural Resources Conservation Service SSURGO (http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/) site to gather soils data. All of these data were received as zip files which were saved into a project file, here they were unzipped. After all of the data were downloaded and unzipped we opened Arccatalog where we built a new file geodatabase and imported the data. The SSURGO data was a problem here. This data came as a database not compatible with arc. To overcome this we used Microsoft access to read the file into arc. Now that we have all of our data in Arccatalog we can project the data into the most appropriate format for the area of interest. I chose to use UTM zone 15N for my data due to the majority of the data being centrally located in this region. I did not use the state system because of the location of Trempealeau County and the surrounding area in relation to the borders of the state system.   

Fig.1. Data layers gathered from various sources for use
in our study of the effects of frac sand mining on local roads. 

    

The next step was to locate the mines. We have record of about 120 locations of mines or other related facilities that are either in use or proposed obtained from Wisconsinwatch.org. To minimize the time to locate all of these locations we formed teams of three to four people and divided the locations among us. We began by removing all of the sites with good addresses that should geocoder. We imported a Bing baseman with road names. Then we attempted to use a geocoder to locate the rest of the sites, by connecting to a local server. The first attempt yielded what appeared to be good results, of the 29 addresses that I began with I had 22 matches and 7 that did not match. However, on analysis all of the site were placed within a town. We went back to our excel table and attempted to normalize the address data, but when we ran the geocoder again we got a similar result. After doing some research we found a fusion table with latitude and longitude locations for all of the mines. We downloaded the table saved it in an excel format and added it to Arcmap as an event theme. We then had to save it to Arcmap as a feature class and set its projection, now we were able to use this as a reference in locating the sites. To locate the sites we used the review/rematch tool in the geocoder. We zoomed to each individual site to verify it from our original table, then we would zoom out until we found a mine, when we found one we could verify its location with either its street address or by the PPLS system, which we overlaid on the map by connecting to a remote server.  This process took several hours to complete. After completion, I was able to identify 35 of 39 sites (figure 2); the remaining four sites did not have enough information to locate them. There may be some uncertainty due to a large number of sites being proposed and not completed and also outdated aerial imagery. 

Fig.2. This map, with a Bing base map, shows the location of all 35 sites that
 I was able to match. The symbolization of the sites varies because the
 matching was done in two smaller groups. 

Fig.3. The data table of all the sites I was involved in locating. I matched
35 sites while 4 had insufficient data to make a match.  

Frac Sand Mining: An Overview

Many of the man made operations in the world require the use of fossil fuels. Historically those fuels have been relatively easy to obtain directly either through mining or drilling operations. As we continue to move forward in the life of the Earth we are using up those resources that are easily obtainable. As a result companies have advanced their techniques in obtaining the much sought after resources. One of these advanced procedures involves the process of hydraulic fracturing. This process involves drilling into layers of shale rock formations which are buried deep in the Earth. These shale deposits house large quantities of fossil fuels; however, do to the nature of the shale the fuels are essentially trapped within them. In order to release the fuels, a mixture of chemicals and sand is pumped into the well at very high pressure which breaks up (fractures) the shale layers. The chemicals are then pumped out of the well and the sand remains in the fissures created basically holding the fractures in the shale open. Now the fuels can be pumped out. There is at least one essential piece of this puzzle that is mined right here in Wisconsin, the sand.

 The mining of sand in Wisconsin is not a new process, however historically it has been done on a much smaller scale than it is being done today and the sand was used more for manufacturing processes. Today, our sand is of particular interest to the energy industry for several reasons. The sand we have in Wisconsin has several properties that make it ideal for fracing including: it is readily available at or near the soil surface which reduces the cost to mine it, it has a high percentage of quartz which gives it a high amount of compressive strength. Finally, unlike many sand deposits the grains are more rounded rather than angular which reduces consolidation of the particles and allows the passage of the fuels through the sand. The rounding of the sand grains is due to the areas glacial history.

The process of removing the sand from the ground usually involves the removal of any vegetation and surface soils in an area and the construction of a large open pit mine. In some instances companies are able to remove an entire hill containing sand deposits. The sand is then transported to a facility where it is washed, sorted and loaded onto rail cars. This transportation can be as short as across the mine site or several miles across the state. Much of the land the mining is being done on was owned by private citizens, the large energy companies will buy the property from them in order to mine the sand.

Much of the sand mining in Wisconsin is occurring through a part of the state which has been called the sand belt. This is a sizable area that stretches from west-central Wisconsin (and into Minnesota) through the central portion of the state. This area has the highest concentration of available sand in the state. This area is unique due do to glacial processes which have removed much of the overburden exposing the underlying sand formations.

All mines are subject to certain regulations; however sand mining is considered non-metallic and as such has much less constrictive regulations. Registration of the mine with the state as a non-metallic mine is part of the process. Mines in the state must also have a plan in place for reclamation after the mining operations have been completed. They must also carry the necessary permits concerning air and water. Water permitting includes both surface water and ground water as high amounts of water are used during the sand washing process. Furthermore the mines have to compete with public opposition, many of the processes will affect those people living in the surrounding communities.

Much concern has been raised with issue of air quality around the mine and the effects silica dust can have on the health of local individuals and those that live along the transportation routes. There have also been concerns with ground water and noise pollution. Many of these issues are constantly in argument because nobody really knows; there has not been enough time to do good research into these cause effect relationships. Another concern that many people have is the effect the traffic has on the road system. Many of the roads were designed for personal vehicle traffic, farm traffic and occasional heavy truck traffic. With the creation of a mine the roads may see a dramatic increase in not only the number of vehicles traveling on the road but many of those vehicles are carrying a large amount of weight. Depending on the number of axels under a vehicle a typical semi can weigh up to 40 tons.         

With the aid of a geographic information system (GIS) we will address the last of these issues by examining the proximity of the mines to the wash plants and rail loading stations. We will determine the distance traveled by the trucks over what routes and try to assess what damage might occur as the result of the increased weight and traffic on the local roads. Our effort will be concentrated in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin and the surrounding area.

CITATIONS:

-University of Wisconsin Extension, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey Factsheet 05, 2012.

-http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Mines/Deposit.html, Last revised: Thursday July 12 2012




-http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/mines/silica.html, Last revised: Tuesday January 22 2013