Public Hearing on Changing Land Zoning Status to Heavy Industrial/Mining
A public hearing will be held Tuesday, December 8th at 7:00 PM at the Clayton County Health and Zoning Office to consider rezoning 746 acres along the Great River Road from its current A-1 (Agriculture) designation to M-2 (Heavy Industrial), specifically to mine, process, and ship silica sand and its byproducts. Interested or affected parties can provide comments at the hearing, or by contacting the Health and Zoning Office at 245-2451.
There ALSO will be public hearings with the Clayton County Board of Supervisors at 10 am on both Dec. 14 and Dec 21.Please consider attending these hearings, as well.
Pattison is the only Frac Sand Mine in Iowa. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has written up the company more than any other sand or gravel mine in the U.S., with 775 orders and citations, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data that goes back to 2000. Its closest competitor had 435. Since Pattison’s launch six years ago, more than 45% of samples taken by federal inspectors at the mine have shown a silica-dust concentration that exceeds a threshold allowed by the mine safety agency. That contrasts with an average rate of 7% among sand and gravel mines over the last decade. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304281004579220450394710282
Lawsuit following mine roof collapse http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-8th-circuit/1607721.html
The sand mine is also being sued for negligence over a fire inside the mine last summer. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2015/12/03/iowa-frac-sand-mine-sued-negligence-over-fire/76719754/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin