Chippewa County (WQOW) - The frac sand industry needs water,
a lot of water. That's one reason why Chippewa County is studying the potential impact
on the groundwater.
The county is six months into a
five-year study and Tuesday, the public got an update.
The county says a sand mine might
use up to 8 million gallons of water in a month. This is not an apples to apples comparison,
but to give you some perspective, the average American household uses 10,000 gallons
a month
Seth Ebel, the Project Engineer for
Chippewa County Land Conservation, says, "There's
a bunch of demands on groundwater right now."
"The thing that is unique about this
project is the specific focus on frac sand mining and irrigated agriculture,"
says Mike Parse, a hydro geologist with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural
History Survey.
Right now, there are six operational
sand mines in Chippewa
County. Ebel says, "We have
had a significant increase, especially in western Chippewa County,
especially in the last couple of years. The public has really had some concerns
about that expansion and about the impacts potentially on ground water."
In response, Chippewa County
is participating in a five-year study to monitor groundwater levels in the
county.
"Any water use,
whether it's a homeowner turning on the tap, flushing your toilet, a brewery
pumping water from the ground to bottle beer, or processing sand at an
industrial sand site, these are all users of water on the land site, and every
use is going to have an impact," says Parsen.
But, it's a matter of figuring out
the type of impact. Parsen says,"Will
it be enough of an impact to actually lower a trout stream enough to create an
adverse impact to that water? Is it enough to lower the water table enough
where we would have water levels dropping lower than we want in neighboring
wells? That's what we're looking at."
Since the study began last fall, three
stream gauging stations have been set up, which are used to monitor water
levels. The county is also working with all six mining sites.
Ebel says, "Out at
the mine sites, the mine operators have been providing us information.
Groundwater levels through their monitoring wells, we're gathering it through
the stream gauges and then some more sophisticated testing that's going
on."
One goal is for the study to serve
as a model for surrounding counties in the future. "We
want to come up with maybe rules of thumb, or other general concepts that can
be transferred to other areas with similar geology like Eau Claire and like Dunn
County."says Ebel.
The study will cost about $500,000, Chippewa
County will pay for about
$300,000. Sand mining companies are also
helping to cover the costs.
The county plans to provide a yearly
update as the study progresses. The first of those was a public event in
bloomer Tuesday. The open house was held at the Bloomer Middle School.
