Thursday, July 31, 2014

Add "Fugitive Dust" To Noxious WI Terminology. Is "Dirty Tier" Next?

The environmental news from Wisconsin is filled with confounding dissonance and double-speak, like nature preserve clear-cutting and mountaintop-removal, as law and policy here is intentionally distorted to degrade water, land, air and the state's reputation.

And here's another one, Bucky:

"Fugitive dust."

Perhaps followed by more beauties like "Fugitive Compliance." Or "Dirty Tier," and others crafted and already implemented by our "chamber of commerce mentality" environmental regulators. 

Now under the influence of consultants and other process-laden gurus, not wildlife protectors and nature preservationists.

Back to "fugitive dust," actually spotted when a Pennsylvania-based frac sand mining firmSmart Sand - - I kid you not - - allegedly let it loose into the people's air over Western Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources which found it among multiple air quality permit and rule violations at the mining site on August 30, 2012.

Intentional clean air violations can result in daily fines of $25,000, and six months jail time, as the DNR told the company in a November 9, 2012 letter.

Yet in the world the Walkerites have turned upside down, the same company is now urging the DNR to reward it with environmentally-green props, as the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters further explains:
An out-of-state frac sand mining company with a history of breaking environmental laws wants the state to label it “green.” The Smart Sand mining company has applied to the Department of Natural Resource’s Green Tier program. The Green Tier program is supposed to reward companies that have well-developed environmental management plans with a history of positive results. This criteria does not fit Smart Sand. 
Allowing Smart Sand to qualify for the Green Tier program would be tantamount to greenwashing – allowing a polluting company to market itself as environmentally friendly. And worse, it would degrade the value of the Green Tier standard for those companies who are truly committed to innovating and improving their environmental practices.
Take Action
ACT NOW: Say No to Greenwashing Frac Sand 


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this post! Smart Sand / Fairview Cranberry is developing a frac sand mine in Hixton, Jackson County. Read about it here: Hixton Grit on tumbler

We the People, Dane County said...

The problem isn't the washing -- its bad -- the problem is the destructive mining. Once its extracted and Wisconsin's silica formations are ground to a powder, of course it is going to be processed somewhere.

And this mining is going to exponentially explode once scott walker's frac sand pay-to-play is complete. Koch Industries Benefits

http://wethepeopledanecounty.blogspot.com/2014/07/frac-sand-pay-to-play-complete-koch.html

No one benefits more from this than koch industries and they are directly or indirectly entagled with Wichita Kansas-based WATCO (explained and sourced in link above).

Here's a news tip for ya: scott walker is against free money for passenger rail, but he will spend tens of millions of your tax dollars to subsidize moving dirt!

That is what Wisconsin citizens mean to walker -- he works for out-of-state interests, not us.

FWIW: A Senator has promised to have the Legislative legal Council:

1. Review operating agreements that serial campaign law violator and serial money launderer Bill Gardner appears to have violated when, on multiple occasions, he used Wisconsin & Southern to illegally launder money (he transferred those agreements to a company that can be connected to Koch).

2. Review the process for returning "Rails to Trails" bike paths to rail service. Remember, the purpose of this act was not to make bike paths -- it was to preserve rail corridors for future use.

The Reedsburg-Madison rail purchase will subsidize a frac sand rail hub. If all goes well, this line can easily be extended up the 400 Trail through Elroy, Black River Falls, Eau Claire, Menomonie, and the St Paul/Minneapolis.

This is exactly up the spine of Wisconsin's western silica sand deposits -- and this isn't for Wisconsinites -- this is for koch industries.