The Destructive Process that Monroe County Sand Will Be Used For

Sand mining is about more than digging up sand. It's part of the hydrofracking process, blasting shale that holds nature gas with a mixture of water and that fine Monroe County sand to extract natural gas. They're trying to legalize it in New York. That's where I live. Monroe County is where I'm from. So hydrofracking and the industry it spawned, sand mining, threatens two places very dear to me.

The sand that is mined in Monroe County is used for a process that, if it is pushed through in New York, will threaten the water supply of 15 million people. It poisons the environment because frack sand mining uses chemicals so toxic that you can't clean the water used for hydrofracking in water treatment plants. It can poison the fish in an entire stream. It destroys traditional business like farming and tourism (a big deal in upstate New York, some parts of which remind me strongly of the rolling hills of Monroe County). Monroe County's new major export is essential to this process.

New Yorkers are worried about this and turned out in unprecedented numbers for a hydrofracking hearing in New York earlier this week. Mayor Bloomberg is against it.

NPR recently covered life in a hydrofracking boom town in North Dakota. It's not a pretty picture. And Monroe County's sand is an essential ingredient for the hydrofracking food chain that is undermining the lives of people across the country for short term gains with long-term environmental costs.