Glenwood City (WQOW) - Monday night, frac sand was the focus of a meeting in St. Croix County. Vista Sand is hoping to build a mine in the Town of Glenwood.
About 200 people were at a public forum at the Glenwood City Jr./Sr. High School. Sand mining experts were there to answer questions from residents.
Questions were raised about what type of air monitoring would be done with the school so close to the proposed sand mine.
"The public needs to keep an eye on it, there are lots of scientists who would like to keep and eye on it, and they will, provided they have the same access to the same samples the mine companies have access to," says guest speak, Jerry Lausted, a retired teacher and farmer.
Tony Tomashek, the Vice President of Milestone Materials says, "Our company, along with a number of other companies voluntarily, are beginning voluntary monitoring programs where we install the air monitors on the property line."
People also wondered about whether the land can be returned to farmland through reclamation.
"There are many different uses you can reclaim the land to and yes, we've reclaimed a number of them back to agricultural uses," says Tomashek.
Lausted says, "The picture I showed you in the beginning, it has two inches of top soil and two inches of fluffy organic matter, you have to have six to eight inches to make farmland. If you got two and you need eight, where do you get the other six?"
People were given a survey to fill out the topics they'd like to learn more about... from ground water to air quality to truck traffic.
