5/20/12 – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says it’s too early to know how much environmental damage was done by a spill at a sand mining facility. An unknown quantity of sand and other sediment made its way to the St. Croix River and wetlands located near the Wisconsin border with Minnesota. Conservation officials were notified about the problem last month when a hike reported seeing cream-colored water in a creek which flows into the St. Croix. The tainted water was traced back to the sand mining facility owned by Tiller Corporation. There was a leak in a holding pond. The sand is being mined for use by the petroleum industry as a part of the process to extract natural gas and oil supplies in a controversial approach called hydraulic fracturing or fracking
