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Full-on frac sand
With a complete, easy-to-use, automated frac sand processing system, a Wisconsin producer keeps material flowing. In Wisconsin, press reports have called frac sand the “new gold rush,” because of its critical importance in the process that uses hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – to extract oil and natural gas. The state’s abundant deposits of coarse-grained quartz sand have been mined for more than 100 years, but today, oil and gas industries prize this sand that is found in the state’s countryside. Taylor Frac, in Taylor, Wis., provides energy producers around the country with the area’s high-quality silica sand. However, before beginning to process sand when it was founded in 2010, Taylor Frac had to find a site and meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s tough regulations and permitting requirements. The 500-acre mine in Jackson County sits atop the Wonewoc Formation, a premier source of the most sought after frac sand. As the number of mines continues to multiply in this area, concerns about environmental preservation have grown, making compliance with regulations… Keep Reading
How a California quarry settled its pond problems
A California quarry gets its settling pond problems settled once and for all. For decades, workers at Stevens Creek Quarry in Cupertino, Calif., dreaded the monthly need to drain and clean out the quarry’s settling pond for its excess slurry tailings. Every 30 to 45 days, the entire operation had to shut down for up to eight days while the pond was cleaned, costing up to $80,000 each time. Owner Rich Voss and his son, Operations Manager Jason Voss, were frustrated by the lost time, high costs and mounting inconveniences associated with the settling pond. Natural raw materials never consolidated in the pond, so flocculent had to be mixed into the tailings to allow settling, making disposal possible at the reclamation site. Once the tailings accumulated in the pond, the plant had to be shut down for the pond to be cleaned out and made operational again. Additionally, the 170-acre operation had limited space for creating a second settling pond that would allow work to continue uninterrupted. “It was such… Keep Reading
