Data

The goal for this project is to apply GIS analysis to the real world issue of sand mining in western Wisconsin.  In addition, a major component of the project was to gain experience in downloading data from a variety of sources, and the creation and management of a geodatabase.  The project was broken down into different sections, with the first being the process of acquiring the data.  The first website visited was the National Atlas website (http://www.nationalatlas.gov/).  This site provided a national railroad dataset that will be used for transportation analysis.  The USGS National Map Viewer (http://nationalmap.gov/viewers.html) was used to download 2006 Land Cover Data and a National Elevation Dataset for the western portion of Wisconsin.  The DEM came in two tiles and were mosaicked together.  Next the USDA Geospatial Gateway website (http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/) was visited to obtain cropland data for the state of Wisconsin.  Finally, the NRCS SSURGO website (http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/) was used to obtain soil data for Trempeleau County.  The soils data came in the form of a Microsoft Access database and needed to be imported to the geodatabase that was created for this project.  To do so, a micro was used to import the tabular data into the geodatabase.  A relationship class was then created to join the tabular soil data to the soil feature class.  Finally, a drainage index table was downloaded and joined to the feature class for symbolization.  After all of the data was downloaded, each dataset was projected in the NAD83 UTM Zone 15N projection.  Figure 1 shows the downloaded and projected data and Figure 2 shows the geodatabase that was created.

Figure 1. Data obtained from various websites.

Figure 2. Geodatabase

The second part of the project entailed geocoding the locations of mines within western Wisconsin.  Geocoding is the process of locating points from an address.  Trempeleau County has a lands division website where a geodatabase was downloaded to gain access to mine locations within the county.  Since our study area is larger than the county, a spreadsheet containing the information for mines in the rest of the state was obtained from (http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2012/07/22/map-frac-sand-july-2012/).  Upon examination of the spreadsheet, it was apparent that the data needed to be normalized.  Addresses were either incomplete, given in township and range sections, listed in a general description of the area, or not given at all.  To gain a better understanding of how the geocoder in ArcMap works, we were told to run the geocoder with the addresses as is.  It was able to locate zero of the addresses due to the lack of a "state" field in the spreadsheet.  After some editing of the addresses and the creation of the "state" field, the geocoder was able to locate about 54% of the 120 mines.  The rest of the mines would have to be manually matched due to discrepancies or lack of an address.  For the sake of time, the addresses were divided up between four group members.  Figure 3 shows the 17 mines that I was assigned.

Figure 3. Mine Addresses.

To locate the mines that had addresses in PLSS format, a server was connected to that contained a statewide shapefile containing the township and range sections.  To match the addresses, aerial imagery was displayed in ArcMap and used to locate the mines.  Once the location was found, the pick address function was used to plot the point.  A very helpful resource for this process was a Google fusion table that contained the locations of mines all across the state (https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=17nDFI4iUPOdyDOEWU7Vu1ONMiVofa3aWR_Gs-Zk#rows:id=1).  Although not all of the mines were located in the exact correct location, it was a great reference to use through the process of manually matching the addresses.  Of the 17 mines that I was assigned, only three addresses were able to be matched after a "zip code" and "state" field were created, leaving me with 14 to match.  The locations for the mines that I was assigned are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Geocoded location of assigned mines.

          

Overview of Sand Mining in Wisconsin

Over the past five years, western Wisconsin has seen a rapid increase in the number of sand mines.  This is due to advances in the extraction of oil and gas via a method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.  This method injects sand, water, and other chemicals into wells to create spaces in the rock and allows the oil and gas to be extracted.  The silica sand in western Wisconsin is perfect for this application due to its size, shape, and hardness.

Figure 1. Ideal silica sand for fracking.
Image source: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/21/red-wing-fracking-sand

As previously mentioned, most of the sand mining is taking place in western Wisconsin.  Figure 2 depicts the locations of sand mines as of June, 2012.

Figure 2. Sand Mine Locations
Image Source: http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/front_page/article_13ecfa4a-d3b3-11e1-a2de-001a4bcf887a.html

After the sand is mined and processed, it is transported by rail to locations to be used for fracking.  Most of the sand mined in Wisconsin travels to North Dakota, Texas, the Eastern US, and Canada (http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/front_page/article_13ecfa4a-d3b3-11e1-a2de-001a4bcf887a.html).  Because railroads are the primary mode of transportation for the sand, mines are often located near railways.

There are many issues related to the mining of sand that are causes for concern.  The mining process requires large amounts of water that is drawn from the water table.  Many people are worried about water shortages, as well as contamination of their own drinking water.  Another health hazard stemming from the mining of silica is related to lung issues.  The inhalation of fine silica dust can lead to many respiratory problems including lung disease, lung cancer, and asthma (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/frac-sand-mining-wisconsin-health_n_2256753.html).  Sand particles are not In addition, the mining takes a toll on the environment through the physical destruction of the landscape.  Figure 3 shows a typical sand mine located in Wisconsin.  Here the expanse and destruction of the landscape is visible, as well as the large pools of water needed in the mining process.  It should be noted that after the completion of mining in an area, the mining company is required to repair the landscape.

Figure 3. Aerial view of sand mine.
Image Source: http://grist.org/natural-gas/against-the-grain-fracking-companies-mine-rural-wisconsin-for-sand/