After much drama last spring, Dennis Egan resigned as mayor of the City of Red Wing after citizens raised objections that he couldn't serve as a frac sand lobbyist and as mayor of a city where the issue of frac sand industry expansion had been divisive.
He chose the lobbyist position, becoming Mayor of Fracsandville instead. In this role, he has an appearance in Minnesota Public Radio's report from Stephanie Hemphill, Frac sand draft rules go back to the drawing board:
Frac sand industry spokesman Dennis Egan said the legislature directed the environmental quality board to have the standards ready to use by October first. But now it will take months longer.
"The industry, as in any industry, wants certainty in terms of what's the process forward, what can we expect, and we can't have new standards and new guidelines every six months," Egan said.
If he's having a sad for his frac sand industry friends, imagine what EBQ Principal Planner Jeff Smyser is going through. Bluestem noted yesterday in EQB staffer to lead Frac Sand Logistics & Supply Chain 2013 pre-conference workshop in Texas that he'll be speaking in a:
workshop . . . designed to support the industry with these challenges as an informative and interactive discussion forum. Bringing together regulators and industry experts, this workshop will deliver key information regarding the current landscape and future direction of regulatory control.
With the guidelines in flux, Smyser will so have to redo his PowerPoint before he leaves for Texas.
For an example of another point of view about the EQB and a specific sand mining project facing review, check out Johanna Rupprecht's LSP to EQB: It's Time for 2-Way Communication on Frac Sand in SE MN:
. . . I want you to know how very troubling it is to people that there’s been little to no communication from the EQB to the public in southeast Minnesota about the progress or status of this EIS since you became responsible for it in March, six months ago. . . .
Who are the staffers of the EQB conversing?
Image: LSP has developed a map of the 11 frac sand mines proposed by Minnesota Sands in a clustered area of southeast Minnesota. via LSP.
If you enjoy reading posts like this on Bluestem Prairie, consider throwing some coin in the tip jar:
Comments