Buffalo County (WQOW) - A committee has given its support to one of the most comprehensive set of recommendations yet for frac sand mining.
The Buffalo County Health Department has been studying frac sand in the midst of a moratorium, which ends in October. The report, spearheaded by Jen Rombalski, county health officer, was presented to the Buffalo County Department of Health and Human Services and Veterans Committee on Tuesday night. The report calls for the county moratorium to be extended another four or five months.
It also recommends air monitoring requirements for frac sand companies in the county. Under the recommendations, companies would be required to have a weather station on site along with two air monitors, one upwind and one downwind. One of those monitors would have to capture the finer particles (PM 2.5) that have caused a lot of concern among citizens. You can't see those particles. They are the size of an oxygen molecule. Rombalski says those particles can hang in the air longer.
The recommendations now move to the county board. To read the entire report, click here.
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Buffalo County (WQOW)- A Buffalo County committee could vote on new frac sand recommendations.
The county's health department has spent time studying frac sand during a moratorium, which ends in October. The health officer says they will recommend extending the moratorium another four or five months. The other recommendations include requiring companies to add air monitors that would capture finer particles.
Several of those monitors are in place around the state as part of an EPA network and those monitors are not necessarily measuring what's coming from the mines. There is one monitor in Eau Claire near Gander Mountain. On Tuesday night, a Buffalo County Health Department committee will decide whether to forward the recommendations to the county board.
