While the state legislature hopes to balance jobs with health, safety, and environmental concerns surrounding frac sand mining, many citizens in Winona County's St. Charles are having none it.
The Post Bulletin's Brian Todd reports in Concerned Citizens for St. Charles: No safe form of silica sand:
A presentation concerning the dangers of silica sand was the latest salvo by the Concerned Citizens for St. Charles (CCSC) against a proposed frack sand processing and loading facility.
The St. Charles City Council on Tuesday night heard from Dr. Wayne Feyereisn, a doctor of internal medicine and member of the Mayo Medical School faculty, on the long-term health risks of the rail facility Minnesota Proppant hopes to build in St. Charles Township.
"There is not a safe form of silica," Feyereisn said. Fine spheres of the sand get caught in lungs, resulting in silicosis, he said.
Learn the details of Feyereisn's presentation in the Post Bulletin article. Todd reports that the CCSC members don't want to see the nation's largest frac sand processing plant opening in their community:
Travis Lange, who has presented more than 1,000 signatures on a petition asking the council to ban any business seeking to process, mine or transport silica sand in St. Charles, told the council that the petition contains a majority of residents compared to those who voted in the last election.
"Let Minnesota Proppant know they are not welcome," Lange said. "You don't have to wait for a proposal. Put it on the agenda. It can be that simple."
The Mayor of St. Charles,on the other hand, thinks that many of those signing the petition don't want to permanet ban of the facility. Read more about the sand war at the PB.
Photo: St. Charles, Minnesota.
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