The railroad bridge just north of Veterans Memorial Bridge is under construction. Workers are replacing the wooden bridge with steel and concrete. The work, which will go on 24 hours a day until Sunday morning, will be loud as the steel is pounded into place.The scuttlebutt is that Amtrak requested the new steel and concrete bridge to replace the wooden bridge in anticipation of mass migration of Minnesotans west into North Dakota to escape high taxes and worsening business climate and increasing unemployment. Just saying. I could be wrong on that; unreliable source.
And then this story explains why North Dakota is booming, and Minnesota/Wisconsin are failing. Places in Minnesota/Wisconsin are placing moratoria on projects that aren't even planned while North Dakota is booming.
Goodhue County on Tuesday imposed a one-year moratorium on any silica sand operations in the county, a move that could slow the mining boom in the Mississippi River valley.
About 100 residents opposed to the mining packed a meeting in Red Wing Tuesday night, successfully urging that commissioners delay issuing any mining permits while they study the consequences of the operation on nearby communities.
Last year, a Midland, Texas, drilling company purchased 155 acres of woods, cornfields and bluffs two miles south of Red Wing near a small housing development and up the hill from Hay Creek, a protected trout stream. It also has acquired land for what may be a transportation facility on the Mississippi near Frontenac.
Silica sand has become a valuable commodity in recent years because it is crucial to an oil- and gas-extraction technology called hydrofracking, which is transforming the domestic U.S. energy business.
Sand mining, however, has aroused local controversy in recent months as Red Wing-area residents organized around an effort for the moratorium. "We were elated and relieved" the board approved it, said Jody McIlrath, a member of the citizens group opposed to the mining operation.The companies that need the sand will go elsewhere. My hunch is that they will find sand in North Dakota.
