So the energy thing really has me going. Sand mining continues apace in this area of Wisconsin. New mines are being sought, developed and opened faster than most of us can even begin to keep up with. Town and County boards are unable to understand the ramifications of the projects they approve, and believe what representatives of the industry tell them. There will be new jobs, they say. It will actually improve the roads because there will be a bigger tax base. There are no health implications. These are all suspect kinds of statements, because there is little to no evidence that mining of any kind improves much beyond the corporate bottom line. I am going to explore in much greater depth the water implications of sand mining because it's hard for me to believe that using millions of gallons of water that then sits in holding ponds is "a good thing." In fact, I suspect it may be a very Bad Thing.
I went to a workshop recently about writing effective letters to the editor. I intend to take the sand mining issue, especially the water implications as my focus for a while. I hope to be able to get some letters to the editor in both larger and smaller newspapers in the next few months, so that people will think more critically about allowing these kinds of mining operations to take place without many safeguards in place, without making the mining corporations pay for all the damages to air quality, water resources, and the lives of citizen-taxpayers living in the vicinity.
