Icing called

We made a couple of interesting and frustrating discoveries at midday today. Here's the background: the thaw left the drive covered in melting snow and puddles. Today's dropping temperatures froze everything that hadn't run off into the ditches or down to the pond behind the house. The drive is a large, smooth, sheet of ice. Both the Better Half and yr obt svt wear Yak Tracks for just these circumstances. The dogs, with four paws and nails on each one, are still resisting learning to walk at heel. So, we wanted to spread some sand (heaven forbid we should apply salt) to provide an enhanced traction for dog walkers.

a driveway covered in ice

Photo by J. Harrington

The first thing we learned is that someone put away the grass seed spreader, which we were going to use to scatter sand, in such a way that the crank handle that drives the spreader didn't turn. That "tool" is now in the trash because we tried to "fix" it using brute force and broke the handle off. Only slightly deterred, but cursing loudly, we dug out the fertilizer spreader, filled its hopper with sand, and proceeded down the drive to create a sand path. That selfsame ice which prompted the urge to spread sand gave no traction to the wheels that drive the spreader full of sand. We did leave a couple of narrow streaks of sand, better than nothing, but we're back to a baseline of knowing how to handle snow and most cold, but being largely thwarted by the rain/ice pattern we're seeing more of.

with but a narrow path of sand

Photo by J. Harrington

If putting on, and fastening, wading boots with studs or cleats on the bottom weren't so much work, we'd use this as a perfect excuse to upgrade our wading equipment but we rarely want to be out in the Winter as much time as we spend wading a stream so we won't lie to ourselves (this week). Then again, patagonia has some expensive river crampons that we could go talk to a salesperson about.

It's supposed to warm up again next weekend. That might help solve our near term problem. Plus, we need to write ourselves a note that, when we get the drive redone, it needs to be graded not only front to back, but also side to side. Then, we hope, the uphill side would be clear and dry as January thaws or March-April "normal" weather presents us with slippery slop covering most of the drive.

January

Betty Adcock

Dusk and snow this hour 
in argument have settled 
nothing. Light persists, 
and darkness. If a star 
shines now, that shine is 
swallowed and given back 
doubled, grounded bright. 
The timid angels flailed 
by passing children lift 
in a whitening wind 
toward night. What plays 
beyond the window plays 
as water might, all parts 
making cold digress. 
Beneath iced bush and eave, 
the small banked fires of birds 
at rest lend absences 
to seeming absence. Truth 
is, nothing at all is missing. 
Wind hisses and one shadow 
sways where a window’s lampglow 
has added something. The rest 
is dark and light together tolled 
against the boundary-riven 
houses. Against our lives, 
the stunning wholeness of the world.

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The colors of joy

After yesterday's doom and gloom posting, I'm happy to share a couple of pieces of good news today. At least one small speedbump has been put in the path of end runs around irrational governance in Wisconsin. The Star Tribune informs us that Wis. city's land grab to attract frac-sand mine is overruled by state agency. In Massachusetts, where I came from, I think the last annexation must have been over a hundred years ago, sometime in the late 1800s, so I was surprised at how much of it is still going on in the midwest. Some recent local annexations in Minnesota's Chisago County seemed to me to exceed any rational assessment of land needed for urban development for a long time to come, but, that's not immediately relevant. Trempealeau County is supposed to have appropriate environmental regulations for frac sand operations, but only in townships. Our old friend Superior Silica Sands wants the City of Independence to annex the property they want to mine. I'll leave it to you to think about why. Wisconsin's Department of Administration ruled the "shoestring annexation" wouldn't meet state legal tests. I hope the two townships involved decide to contest the annexation and don't get bought off.

One of Autumn's palettes (try the yellow or tan block)

Photo by J. Harrington

Of probably less significance, but nevertheless heartening, is an Internet discovery I want to share. I see myself as primarily a writer. During Spring (greens) and Autumn (reds, yellows, browns etc.), I've found my lack of fine arts training and education a hindrance when describing the plethora of colors and shades to be seen. Checking for a "color dictionary" gives me hexadecimal notations good for computers but not so much for humans. Then I found this color thesaurus. Thanks to Ingrid Sundberg for the effort and results. A fine example of art being a gift economy. Have some fun and match the colors of the leaves  and grasses (forbes?) with the names in the thesaurus. It's far from as easy as I thought it would be. Now, ask yourself, if you were creating the world, could you do any better with the colors? I didn't think so.

Another Autumn palette (try the red block)

Photo by J. Harrington

Next, I want to make a quick mention of Will Steger's commentary piece on the growth on Minnesota's clean energy economy and the jobs that go with it. I've been hoping someone was working on this. Turns out someone was.

As today's final note, yesterday we uploaded our 700th posting. We missed a few days last year, but basically we've been at this daily for coming up on two years. Once we reach that milestone we may move to a less rigid schedule of several times a week, but we'll try to remain more colorful than eight colors.

Men Say Brown

By Henry M. Seiden 

On the radio this morning: The average woman knows

275 colors—and men know eight. Women say coffee,

mocha, copper, cinnamon, taupe. Men say brown.

Women know an Amazon of colors I might have said

were green, an Antarctica of whites, oceans of colors

I'd stupidly call blue, fields of color, with flowers in them

I would have said were red.

From women, I've learned to love the browns,

the earths, the dusts, the clays, the soft colors, the colors

brought out from the mines, hardened ones,

hardened in fires I would call red; the colors of the furies;

the reconciling colors of the cooling ash.

By myself I know the evening colors when the sky goes

from blue to another blue to black—although it's a lonely,

whitish black sometimes,

                                                                        like the color of sleep—

the way dreams are lit by the light that's thrown

from nowhere on the things you find in them. Last night

there was a turtle, I would say it was brown or green,

or it was a snake, mottled, a kind of grey, disguised

as a turtle, red spots as if painted on the shell,

a palish greenish underside—vulnerable, alone

swimming in water I would say was colorless.

I woke to the pale colors of the morning—no one

has a name for those: the white-rose white you see

through the white of the curtains on the window,

the milks, the creams, the cream a galactic swirl

before it turns to brown when your wife stirs it in the coffee,

the faint drying oval on the silver of the spoon.

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Regaining our balance

First things first. About a week ago, we mentioned, based on information in the Star Tribune, that a Superior Silica Sands (SSS) operation in Wisconsin had been shut down for operating without a permit. Today's issue of the Strib notes such information was and is incorrect. It appears that the county regulators in Wisconsin should have cited a local firm, Cameron Rail Site, instead of SSS. We're happy to correct our small part of the record here on My Minnesota. For those of you particularly interested in frac sand issues in Minnesota and Wisconsin, you could try: The Frac Sand Weekly. We just discovered it today so can't speak to its quality or currency.

Second, have you ever seen Autumn colors, especially in oak trees, as gorgeous as this year's?

red oak leaves; from a "red oak?"

Photo by J. Harrington

That taken care of, there's disturbing information in today's paper on the rapidly changing status of Ebola protocols and responses, a suicide in the Koochiching County jail and a report on the secrecy our Pentagon maintained about Iraq's chemical weapons, that, added to all of the damn, stupid, ugly political ads coming from both parties over public airwaves makes me wonder what the hell we're doing to ourselves? Since when did a scorched earth policy become acceptable as a governance or communications philosophy in this country? It's not as if we don't know any better but it seems as if our values and priorities have become sadly, self-destructively, distorted. Almost as bad is my fear that, if we don't play a rigged game, the 1% wins by default. We're being conditioned to not believe anyone about anything anymore. Here's an example:

Several days after reading something to the effect that "there must have been a breach of protocol," we read:

"What happened there (in Dallas), regardless of the reason, is not acceptable. It shouldn't have happened," Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH, said on MSNBC Wednesday." We humans seem to be too hard pressed to accept our own limitations and fallibility.

"Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, has acknowledged that the government wasn't aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected patient to a nurse at a Dallas hospital.

"We could've sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from day one about exactly how this should be managed," he said Tuesday."

Meanwhile, the Star Tribune today  is reporting that:

"Minnesota nurses push for better Ebola gear."

Lots of politicians and businesses claim that there are too many regulations and that cost business too much to meet. I think, based on recent reports of oil train explosions, and oil pipeline leaks that have major, negative consequences to the environment and its inhabitants, including people, and, maybe in the Ebola protocols, we're seeing some chickens come home to roost. We might not have to have so many regulations if we had the right regulations to begin with, but we seem to think we can be penny-wise without being pound-foolish.

mixed deciduous and conifer colors

Photo by J. Harrington

Nature has worked out ecological governance over millions of years of evolution. I don't think she worries about being first to market or next quarter's profits. She focuses on trying to get it right for life. I have no idea why, other than through hubris, we think we can do better. So the issue is, can we correct our own governance systems before we run out of time to correct and extend our record? Think about that between now and November 4. It isn't which politician promises the cheapest, fastest governance, but how do we get the job done best. None of our major or minor parties seem to "get it," so we, for now, have to pick the least, worst alternative or lose by default, or, we could vote for whoever runs the least negative campaign, regardless of party, to reward those who want to offer hope for the future rather than scorched earth today.

Negative

By Kevin Young 

Wake to find everything black

what was white, all the vice

versa—white maids on TV, black

sitcoms that star white dwarfs

cute as pearl buttons. Black Presidents,

Black Houses. White horse

candidates. All bleach burns

clothes black. Drive roads

white as you are, white songs

on the radio stolen by black bands

like secret pancake recipes, white back-up

singers, ball-players & boxers all

white as tar. Feathers on chickens

dark as everything, boiling in the pot

that called the kettle honky. Even

whites of the eye turn dark, pupils

clear & changing as a cat's.

Is this what we've wanted

& waited for? to see snow

covering everything black

as Christmas, dark pages written

white upon? All our eclipses bright,

dark stars shooting across pale

sky, glowing like ash in fire, shower

every skin. Only money keeps

green, still grows & burns like grass

under dark daylight.

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Kicking sand

Did you get up to see the blood moon this morning? It was impressive. My night photography skills, or, more accurately, lack thereof, were obvious in my failed attempts to capture it. As the light came up and the eclipse ended, the full moon looked really good as it was setting. Under those conditions, I had some success. The real message here is that, since I didn't practice starting back in May or June, when the big time came, I couldn't capture it. Of course, I'm still fussing about why more of the controls on my camera aren't backlit. Maybe next year when the opportunity arises, I'll have my act more together.

October's "blood moon"

Photo by J. Harrington

Speaking of getting acts together, some of you may recall that an outfit called Superior Silica Sands has been considering purchasing property in the industrial park in North Branch. According to today's Star Tribune, another of SSS's operations in Wisconsin was just shut down for operating without a permit. That might be worth knowing for Chisago County residents who have concerns about the proposed operation in North Branch. Those same folks might also want to know that there's a meeting Monday, October 13 " 2:30 in the DNR Central Office Lobby Conference Room to discuss the draft ordinance, timelines, and future meeting dates" for a Wabasha City sand ordinance. Always good to know how seriously a business or community takes regulatory requirements, including "dumping polluted wastewater into an unlined pond against regulations..." as was reported for the SSS Wisconsin operation mentioned above. I wonder if any of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency staff who are working on a permit for SSS's operations in Minnesota are aware of the Wisconsin issues and if that could be taken into account in permit conditions.

Patience

By Katherine Larson 

For Max Rojas 

Once a month

when the moon loses everything,

Don Max takes a chair

to the edge of the sea.

Black sand beach & green-backed heron.

The moon   

casts off her milkglass earrings.

I am nothing, she says, but black & white.

I keep losing my face.

Don Max feels for his pipe in his pocket.

Takes it, knocks it against his palm.

I am old! She cries. I get gooseflesh

in the dark. Don Max is looking for his tobacco.

Don Max has found a match.

You don’t know how hard it is

to come back from nothing.   

Don Max smiles & lights up.   

I keep making the same mistakes, she says.

I think you should leave me, she says.   

Through smoke, she watches Don Max

fold a strip of seaweed into a grasshopper.

Leave me for your own good! She demands.

Don Max has set the grasshopper in the sand.

Besides, I am too beautiful.   

She speaks it as though it makes her sad.

I’ll find other lovers. I will

forget you.

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Sand in your face?

Following yesterday's thoughts in My Minnesota on mining's environmental management in Northern Minnesota, today's MinnPost has an informative piece by Ron Meador noting that "Frac-sand mining boom is accelerating and eluding regulators, analysis finds." This time its Southeastern Minnesota that's the area of concern. Combine that with  western and southern Minnesota's agricultural contributions to Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, and you might get the impression we're at war with the only home we have, and There is no Planet B.

Planet A and Planet B
A true-color NASA satellite mosaic of Earth.

At least as far as the frac sand mining in Minnesota is concerned, the EQB has devoted a page on their web site so you can try to keep track of what the state has done and is still proposing to do. DNR's reclamation rule-making schedule is here; The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has recently issued a second request for public comments on particulate emissions rule-making; Minnesota's Department of Health suggests that Health Impact Assessments should be part of the environmental review process (I'd like to see legislation making an HIA mandatory for mining, processing, transport and transhipment of silica sand). Once again, I think that rather than banning mining operations, Minnesota should be imposing environmental regulations, regardless of cost, to protect the "public health and welfare." If that drives up the cost of natural gas or other natural resource, we should use less of it. I think that's the way economics is supposed to work. Otherwise, those folks who are negatively affected end up subsidizing those who make a profit from the activity.

Minnesota's Impaired Waters
source: MPCA

Most economists I've read think rather poorly of subsidies. If energy subsidies aren't beneficial, I don't see why mining subsidies would be. Some smartphone makers are already charging a small fortune for their products. The price of natural gas has dropped significantly in the past few years. We need to start paying the real price, including the depleted environmental capital costs, of the resources we consume. Why? There is no Planet B and the most recent world populations forecasts have population increasing to 12+ billion. The issue isn't just the amount of change that's going on, but the increasing (increased) rate of change also. Minnesota is currently, or may soon be, paying the price in environmental quality and in quality of life for those who enjoy the outdoors or need water and air. If you're starting to think we're under assault, you may be right. See what Pogo has to say about it. Don't we live in

Interesting Times

By Mark Jarman 

Everything’s happening on the cusp of tragedy, the tip of comedy, the pivot of event.

You want a placid life, find another planet. This one is occupied with the story’s arc:

About to happen, on the verge, horizontal. You want another planet, try the moon.

Try any of the eight, try Planet X. It’s out there somewhere, black with serenity.

How interesting will our times become? How much more interesting can they become?

A crow with something dangling from its beak flaps onto a telephone pole top, daintily,

And croaks its victory to other crows and tries to keep its morsel to itself.

A limp shape, leggy, stunned, drops from the black beak’s scissors like a rag.

We drive past, commenting, and looking upward. A sunny morning, too cold to be nesting,

Unless that is a nest the crow has seized, against the coming spring.

We’ve been at this historical site before, but not in any history we remember.

The present has been cloaked in cloud before, and not on any holy mountaintop.

To know the stars will one day fly apart so far they can’t be seen

Is almost a relief. For the future flies in one direction—toward us.

And the only way to sidestep it—the only way—is headed this way, too.

So, look. That woman’s got a child by the hand. She’s dragging him across the street.

He’s crying and she’s shouting, but we see only dumbshow. Their breath is smoke.

Will she give in and comfort him? Will he concede at last? We do not know.

Their words are smoke. In a minute they’ll be somewhere else entirely.

Everyone in a minute will be somewhere else entirely. As the crow flies.

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Environmental regulation consumption advisory

I'm going to make a wild guess that he hadn't read yesterday's story about citizen concerns on mercury discharges in the St. Louis River when "PolyMet spokesman Bruce Richardson said the poll results are consistent with the company’s research that shows residents are willing to let environmental regulators manage the decision." The last time I took a look, Minnesotans were getting increasingly concerned about whether their government was doing enough to protect public health and the environment. That's one of the reasons there was a recent forum in Duluth, seeking commitments from public agencies to accelerate the cleanup of the St. Louis river and other mercury contaminated water bodies in Minnesota.

St. Louis River in Duluth

Photo by J. Harrington

A different example of citizen concern landed in my in basket within the past few days. Someone posted a comment on My Minnesota to be sure we knew about the fact that North Branch and Chisago County residents have concerns about the possible health impacts of a frac sand processing and transfer facility proposed for a North Branch industrial park. That's in line with the recent Minnesota Pollution Control Agency decision to respond to local citizen concerns and require an environmental review of a frac sand operation in Winona. It's my belief that, if Minnesotans were willing to let environmental regulators and local officials manage decisions that affect the health and safety of Minnesotans, there wouldn't be as much push back as we're seeing. As things stand, even our beautiful wild and scenic St. Croix River has a number of fish consumption advisories. (By the way, the fish consumption advisory for rivers is only 18 pages long. The advisory for lakes runs to 193 pages.)

Wild, scenic St. Croix River

Photo by J. Harrington

I don't believe that business as usual is going to cut it any more. I'm glad to see that residents of Minnesota and a number of other places are getting tired of picking up the tab for cleanup after corporations have siphoned the profits out of the local environment. Maybe that frustration will create a new and different kind of corporate inversion financing that most of us could probably support. You know, something that helps the 99% and not just the 1%. Maybe, just maybe, we're starting to put being a citizen ahead of being a consumer. That would be a massive improvement in the quality of life and the quality of the environment for most of us. Those in Scotland decided to stick with the United Kingdom, but they did so based on informed consent. That's what I think most Minnesotans want their local officials and environmental regulators to provide and honor. Something to think about as you read Incantation and when you vote come this November.

Incantation

By Czeslaw Milosz 

Translated By Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Pinsky 

Human reason is beautiful and invincible.

No bars, no barbed wire, no pulping of books,

No sentence of banishment can prevail against it.

It establishes the universal ideas in language,

And guides our hand so we write Truth and Justice

With capital letters, lie and oppression with small.

It puts what should be above things as they are,

Is an enemy of despair and a friend of hope.

It does not know Jew from Greek or slave from master,

Giving us the estate of the world to manage.

It saves austere and transparent phrases

From the filthy discord of tortured words.

It says that everything is new under the sun,

Opens the congealed fist of the past.

Beautiful and very young are Philo-Sophia

And poetry, her ally in the service of the good.

As late as yesterday Nature celebrated their birth,

The news was brought to the mountains by a unicorn and an echo.

Their friendship will be glorious, their time has no limit.

Their enemies have delivered themselves to destruction.

Berkeley, 1968

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Thanks and No Thanks

Thanks

All to often, I'm ready to find fault with and criticize "what's wrong with the world," especially how politics and government have a penchant for making things worse instead of better. Not today. Today I truly want to thank Governor Dayton, MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine, and the good folks at the Land Stewardship Project for their wisdom, decision-making and collective efforts that led to an "environmental review of the CD Corporation’s frac sand facility expansion at the river port in Winona, Minn. As a result, the proposed expansion cannot proceed until the environmental review process is completed." It's a pleasure to see government doing its job. I wonder if a similar review might be required for the proposed frac sand transfer facility in North Branch.

Northern Minnesota, Sawtooth Mountains

Photo by J. Harrington

Many corporations aren't waiting for government to make a decision or impose a requirement. I'm becoming more and more intrigued by the growth in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting. It may or may not cut into profits, but, except for those who think we should win a race to the bottom, effectively and efficiently managing environmental responsibilities, which involves more than permit compliance, is rapidly becoming a necessity for obtaining a social license to continue (or start) a successful business. That's why I'm both surprised and disappointed that the Mining Minnesota web site references only meeting mandated federal and state environmental standards.

Strong Environmental Standards: Minnesota’s strong environmental standards are among the most stringent. The state has a thorough and comprehensive environmental review and permitting process. All mining companies are required to meet or exceed all standards, assuring air and water quality is protected.

Calumet, Minnesota, a different kind of mountain

Photo by J. Harrington

No Thanks

I would be more impressed if they also made reference to developing and following an Environmental Management System for any mining operation that may get permitted. We can make a comparison with the building industry. Building codes establish minimum requirements to be met for health and safety and energy efficiency. Many developers of new buildings are using green building criteria to go well beyond those minimum standards for energy efficiency, indoor air quality, water conservation and other factors including waste minimization and recycling. For many years, mining companies have had the benefit of international standards they could use for environmental management systems consistent with ISO 14000. I wonder why Minnesota Mining doesn't mention on their web site an intent to follow and develop such a system. Maybe they're waiting for the voluntary system to become a legal requirement. (That might make a great permit condition, if we ever get to that point.) Five uranium operations in Saskatchewan are ISO 14001 certified, Minera Yanacocha, an open pit gold mine promotes its 2004 certification. Doe Run's Sweetwater Mine and Mill has achieved ISO 14001 Certification. I certainly don't want you to conclude that I think achieving an ISO 14001 certification is the solution to mining's environmental impacts, but it is a clear indication of companies that have learned to walk their talk about minimizing environmental impacts.

Maybe, like Tony Hoagland, I take it personal. I live on this world.

Personal

By Tony Hoagland

Don’t take it personal, they said;

but I did, I took it all quite personal—

the breeze and the river and the color of the fields;

the price of grapefruit and stamps,

the wet hair of women in the rain—

And I cursed what hurt me

and I praised what gave me joy,

the most simple-minded of possible responses.

The government reminded me of my father,

with its deafness and its laws,

and the weather reminded me of my mom,

with her tropical squalls.

Enjoy it while you can, they said of Happiness

Think first, they said of Talk

Get over it, they said

at the School of Broken Hearts

but I couldn’t and I didn’t and I don’t

believe in the clean break;

I believe in the compound fracture

served with a sauce of dirty regret,

I believe in saying it all

and taking it all back

and saying it again for good measure

while the air fills up with I’m-Sorries

like wheeling birds

and the trees look seasick in the wind.

Oh life! Can you blame me

for making a scene?

You were that yellow caboose, the moon

disappearing over a ridge of cloud.

I was the dog, chained in some fool’s backyard;

barking and barking:

trying to convince everything else

to take it personal too.

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Win a little, lose a little

© harrington

Welcome, Take a look at the photo above taken today. It's pretty clear to me that the local red osier dogwood hasn't yet greened up for Spring. The bright red against the white is pretty enough though that I don't really mind. Obviously, the tamaracks/larches aren't showing yet this year's leaves. Most of the local oaks still are hanging onto last year's foliage, which means this years leaf buds haven't yet swelled enough to loosen the old leaf stem and, the current weather forecast is talking about 3" to 6" of snowfall over the next 24 hours or so, and yet, and yet....

© harrington

The sun has returned far enough north that it has the strength to warm dark pavement, or exposed soil, causing snow melt from south facing roadsides. It is now less than a month to the Vernal Equinox (March 20 this year, if you're wondering). Franco the rescue dog and I encountered the first chipmunk of the season day before yesterday. I think we're at that time of year in My Minnesota when the seasonal changes take one step forward, one step back and one step sideways, kind of like the Minnesota Legislature which is also in season. Speaking of the Legislature, according to the Land Stewardship Project, there's supposed to be hearing on the fracking sand issue next Tues., Feb. 26, at noon in the Senate Environment and Energy Policy Committee in Room 107 of the Capitol. LSP is looking for a crowd at this hearing and people prepared to testify again. Please contact LSP's Bobby King at 612-722-6377 or bking[at]landstewardshipproject.org for more information. One thing that kind of amazed me when I recently went back and reviewed the Minnesota Energy and Environment Score Card prepared by/for Minnesota's Environmental Quality Board was that fracking sand never was mentioned as an issue under air quality, water quality, land use or transportation (or anywhere else for that matter). If you have some time and energy, you might want to share with the EQB your opinion about that apparent oversight. Other than that, Think Spring! unless of course you're an ice angler, snowmobiler, snow shoer etc.... By the way, thanks for stopping by. Make it a habit. I enjoy the company.

Mine, mine, all mine!

© harrington

Happy Valentine's Day. Thanks for stopping by. Remember a poster with the saying "war is not healthy for children and other living things?" I'm starting to feel the same way about mining. Monday's posting on snow storm, sand storm elicited a great set of comments. I'm reprinting them here because I don't like the way Blogger buries comments and I think the ones submitted are important. Jim Erkel wrote :

There are a number of developments relating to the possibility of a GEIS for silica sand mining and processing. The Environmental Quality Board has been considering a petition for a GEIS for some time. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health recently recommended that Winona County perform an EIS for several proposed mines that the agencies believe should be considered as part of a single project. And, the Minnesota Legislature is considering several bills that would fund a GEIS.

One question that hasn't been answered yet is whether a moratorium on permitting additional mines and processing facilities can or should be imposed during a GEIS. Under its rules on environmental review, the EQB can't impose a moratorium if it decides to proceed with a GEIS. However, some of us have argued that it has such authority under the Critical Areas Act. Some of the legislation moving through the Minnesota Senate would also establish a moratorium if a GEIS is funded.

I also find that Bluestem Prairie is a great source of information on sand mining and I highly recommend it. The Land Stewardship Project is leading the charge on the legislation to fund a GEIS and establish a moratorium. They have a lot of information on specific projects that have been proposed and about how well (or not) local governments in southeast Minnesota have responded to the sand rush.

It is important to remember that silica sand mining isn't only a concern in southeast Minnesota. The maps of commercially available sand deposits show broad swaths up through the Twin Cities and into the northern suburbs and also up the Minnesota River Valley. It truly is an issue of statewide concern.

Thanks, Jim. Shortly after reading Jim's comments,  I received an email notice of a DVD that's been made of last year's sled dog delivery to the governor by Frank Moe a petition with thousands of signatures expressing concerns about mining in sensitive areas of northern Minnesota. I'm really pleased that My Minnesota has folks like Jim and Frank and Sally Jo helping the rest of us keep track of the threats to Our Minnesota. Please stop by again tomorrow to check out the latest rant or write on what's yours, mine and ours.