Town of Howard anticipates hiring engineer to review Albertville Valley sand mine application

By LeAnn R. Ralph

TOWN OF HOWARD   —  Now that Northern Sands Wisconsin LLC has submitted an application for the proposed Albertville Valley sand mine, the Howard Town Board is in the process of hiring an engineer.

The Town of Howard has received the fees required by the Howard Town Board for professional services to review the application, and the town board is in the process of hiring an engineering firm to do a detailed review of the application for a mine license, said Vernon Schindler, town chair, at the Howard Town Board’s July 2 meeting.

At the Howard Town Board’s June 5 meeting, board members agreed to send a letter to Northern Sands Wisconsin asking for an additional administrative fee of $20,000 with a minimum of $5,000 kept in an escrow account.

Northern Sands Wisconsin is proposing to develop a 1,300-acre frac sand mine southeast of Colfax that would stretch north and south along the Chippewa County and Dunn County line directly east of the intersection of county Highway N and county Highway A.

The mine site is expected to include a wet processing plant, a dry processing plant, rail car storage area and a rail loading facility.

The site is located along the Canadian National rail line which runs through Colfax.

Reclamation plan

Chippewa County held a public hearing on the reclamation plan for the Albertville Valley sand mine in July of 2015 and approved the reclamation plan in November of 2015.

In the nonmetallic mine reclamation permit issued by the Chippewa County Department of Land Conservation and Forest Management, Northern Sands was required to complete an assessment of the biological resources at the mine site along with an inventory and an assessment of the seeps, springs, wetlands and surface waters located within the mine boundary and the adjacent properties.

During the time that has elapsed since the reclamation permit was approved, Northern Sands has acquired new investors and has become Northern Sands Wisconsin.

Northern Sands was sued for breach of contract in Chippewa County by Northern Oak Proppants in 2017. Northern Oak was seeking $1.875 million plus interest.

According to online court records, a settlement and a stipulation to dismiss the case before trial occurred on February 26 of this year although there is no information on what the settlement entailed.

The original deadline for Northern Sands to submit the reports to Chippewa County Land Conservation was July 31, 2016, but the deadline was extended to December 31, 2017, along with the requirement that the assessments and inventories be started by October 15, 2016.

Deficiencies

According to a letter dated March 13, 2018, from Chippewa County Land Conservation and Forest Management to Tom Gapinske of Northern Sands Wisconsin, LLC, “our review has found that this submittal is deficient in meeting multiple conditions of Permit#2015-01.”

The letter states a partial wetland delineation was not conducted in the appropriate growing season and to meet the conditions of the reclamation permit, Northern Sands Wisconsin was required to initiate a state-recognized wetland delineation for all of Phase I no later than May 1, 2018.

The report must be completed and submitted to Chippewa County Land Conservation and Forest Management no later than August 1, 2018, the letter states.

Progress on the assessments and reports from Northern Sands Wisconsin which are required by Chippewa County was not discussed at the Howard Town Board’s July 2 meeting.

Public meeting

After the review of the Northern Sands Wisconsin application has been completed by the engineer, a report will be written about the application that will be available to attendees at a public meeting.

Notice of the public meeting will be posted 15 days in advance, and the meeting notice will be mailed to all landowners within a half mile of the mine site.

During the public meeting, Northern Sands Wisconsin will be given an opportunity to make a presentation about the proposed Albertville Valley sand mine, and members of the public who attend the meeting will be allowed to make comments about the proposed sand mine.

The Howard Town Board will not make a decision about whether to issue the mine license to Northern Sands Wisconsin until all of the information has been received and considered, Schindler said.

The town board will not make any further comments about Northern Sands or the application for a mine license until negotiations have been completed, he said.

Timeline

According to the application for a mine license, Northern Sands Wisconsin plans to begin site preparation, topsoil stockpiling, storm water controls and access and roadway improvements during the first quarter of 2019. Rail yard and plant construction also will begin and site excavation and mine operations will begin as well.

If Northern Sands Wisconsin receives a mine license from the Town of Howard, and if all goes according to plan, during the third quarter of 2019, the rail yard and plant construction will be complete, with an estimated 700,000 tons of frac sand production in 2019.

In the first quarter of 2020, the processing plant and rail transload facility is expected to be fully operational with 1.5 million tons as the production target in 2020 and beyond.

In the third quarter of 2020, reclamation of Phase I is expected to begin.

Mining operations are expected to be completed in 2040 to 2044 with reclamation monitoring consistent with permit requirements.

Northern Sands Wisconsin has six major construction projects to complete before operation of the sand mine starts: processing/rail yard loadout site; wet plant construction; dry plant construction; rail yard switching interconnection construction; electricity and natural gas services; and mine site preparation.

Other details

Here are some other details included in the application for a mine license.

All together, 465.8 acres are expected to be disturbed, producing 38.9 million tons of frac sand 16.7 million tons of non-marketable material.

Daily water use is estimated to be 75,000 and 130,000 gallons.

The plan is to operate the sand mine 12 hours per day, Monday through Friday, during daylight hours and no later than 6 p.m. to minimize off-site impacts to residents. Mining operations will stop in late fall and resume in the spring.

Berms are planned to be used to provide a screen for the operations and also to minimize light pollution to neighboring properties.

Groundwater monitoring wells plan to be installed and quarterly water samples will be tested for chemicals used in on-site mining operations as well as for lead, arsenic, iron, iron bacteria, turbidity, nitrates and other contaminants associated with any activity other than mining that continues to be conducted on the mine site or adjacent land.

All private wells within a quarter of a mile of the mine down-gradient of the groundwater flow are planned to be tested for the same contaminants every third year of operation. If a sentinel well shows contaminants of the groundwater that may be due to the mining operation, and no private wells are within a quarter of a mile down-gradient, private wells up to a half mile down-gradient will be sampled.

Private wells within a half mile in any direction are expected to be sampled at any time the town board requests sampling, with the results presented to the Town of Howard and to the well owner.

All together, 35 private wells are identified within a quarter of a mile of the mine site boundaries.

Property owners with lease or purchase agreements are Kenneth and Sue Anderson; Ron Anderson; Northern Sands Wisconsin (former Bethmann and Lemler property); Robert and Lana Christoffel; D R Acres LLC; Audrey Dreger; Ray Dreger; Beverly Geissler; Daniel Geissler; Alan and Judith Grossmeier; Lee and Jim Jensen; James and Rebecca Kiesow; Robert and Karla Rasmussen; Daniel and Michelle Rothbauer; Donald and Colleen Schwartz; Dan Svee; Olav Svee.