Frac Sand Company Won’t Be Permitted To Mine Near Scenic Riverway

Pattison Sand Company, an Iowa-based frac sand company, will not be allowed to mine within the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway.

The board charged with protecting the scenic beauty of the river determined the mine would not be able to conceal all mining activity.

About 60 acres of the mine site would have been located within the state-designated Lower Wisconsin Riverway in the Town of Bridgeport. Pattison had to prove no activities would be visible from the river. Don Greenwood chairs the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board, which cast a 6-2 vote to keep Pattison out.

“Some of us believed that this mine would be visible and that it did not meet the riverway law standards although the mining company asserted that it would.”

Greenwood says they studied mine plans, toured the site and even conducted computer modeling before their decision. He says permitting a mine within the riverway could have set a bad precedent.

“Let’s say we had three, four, five, six frac sand mines going on within the riverway, we’d pretty much have sold the riverway down the river. People would not be coming out there to have the industrial zone experience.”

Edie Ehlert is a co-cordinator of the Crawford Stewardship Project, a conservation group focused on preserving the Wisconsin River. She says applause erupted when the sand mine was voted out of the riverway.

“The board was very courageous to vote in favor of supporting the riverway, in favor of the intent of the law of the riverway to protect and preserve. It was indeed a wonderful, wonderful result.”

Pattison can still mine 240 acres outside the riverway zone and has permits from the town. But Ehlert’s group filed a lawsuit to void those, alleging a town board member leased land to the company before the permits were given.

Calls to Pattison Sand were not returned.