Eau Claire County (WQOW)- Eau Claire County is home to another sand mining proposal.
A telecommunication company out of La Crosse recently bought about 160 acres of land north of Augusta. It wants to build a sand mine.
Five Star Telecom Properties out of La Crosse bought about 160 acres of land in the town of Bridge Creek north of Augusta. The company has sent a proposal to Eau Claire County to build a silica sand mine.
"It'll be like a building permit where you make an application for a building permit, the building inspector looks at it, makes sure it complies with the building code," explains Eau Claire County Planning and Development Director Mel Erickson. "If it does, he issues you a permit. That's kind of like what we do here."
Along with the sand mine, the company is proposing to build a 55-acre artificial lake.
"They are not taking a hill down, they are going down into the land," Erickson says. "It's going to naturally fill with water and to propose another use wouldn't be practical so that's why they are looking at a lake."
All of which will be at least 300 feet away from the nearby Eau Claire River.
"If they stay outside of that area, it's not zoned and it only comes under the non-metallic mine reclamation ordinance," Erickson points out.
Eau Claire County says it's going to take its time reviewing the application because so many complications exist. For instance, the sand company is proposing to dig into the ground, which could affect the area's groundwater.
The county says this sand mine proposal is different than others. Two other sand mines proposed for the county by Hi-Crush and High Country Sand would work above the groundwater table. "This (Five Star) is the first mine that we've had that is proposing to actually mine below the groundwater table and care must be taken to make sure we understand it well before we start reviewing it," Erickson says.
In the application, Five Star says it wouldn't sort, crush, or process at the site. The company wants to take the sand and haul it by truck to another facility south of Tomah where it would be processed. We contacted Five Star on Friday to ask about its application and why a telecommunications company is interested in sand mining. We never heard back.
