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SPEAKER: Well, the upper Midwest is in the midst of a sand mining boom. Energy and mining companies use the silica sand to extract oil and natural gas from the ground. Geologists say there are virtually unlimited amounts of this sand buried beneath the bluffs near the Mississippi River. But the process doesn't come without controversy. Many rural Minnesota communities, like those near Red Wing, want to take their time before they start the sand mining process. Elizabeth Baier reports.

ELIZABETH BAIER: Hay Creek Township is known for two things-- its namesake creek, popular with anglers, and the bluffs that offer uninterrupted views across the Mississippi River Valley as far as Wisconsin.

LOIS STEFFENHAGEN: The hills are what makes it a valley to begin with. The valley for the farming, there's farming, there are a lot of good fields on the hills.

ELIZABETH BAIER: Lois Steffenhagen walks down a long driveway in the valley where she grew up. The meandering hills are a postcard image of rural Minnesota. The land is close to the shores of the Mississippi river, where eagles and hawks soar. Steffenhagen is trying to sell a 240-acre estate that belonged to her two late brothers. She never imagined the Valley would one day be known for a precious commodity, one that she grew up playing with.

LOIS STEFFENHAGEN: We know there was sand. We didn't know that it would ever be that valuable. So when I got a call in June about putting a sand-washing plant here, then we got concerned ourselves.

ELIZABETH BAIER: Steffenhagen and her siblings didn't want to see their land in the hands of someone who might turn around and sell it to a mining company. So they decided they weren't ready to sell. Since then, officials in Goodhue, Winona, and Wabasha counties have implemented temporary moratoriums on silica sand mining to study the issue. Houston and Olmsted counties are also considering moratoriums.

Officials are trying to figure out how to regulate silica sand mining, a process that's swept parts of western Wisconsin in the last five years. There are several dozen active mining facilities in Wisconsin and dozens more proposed. But citizens groups have formed on both sides of the river to oppose these projects. They worry mines will contaminate drinking water and lead to respiratory problems caused by inhaling silica sand dust. But for other landowners, the moratoriums have been a roadblock.

Jeff Broberg is a land consultant in Rochester, working with several Winona County landowners who want to lease property to mining companies. Broberg is a trained geologist with interests that include environmental conservation. He says, even though Minnesota is already home to a handful of silica sand mining operations, the moratorium has postponed at least three new proposed projects in the southeastern part of the state.

JEFF BROBERG: People say there's going to be thousands of mines. Well, there's never going to be thousands of mines. There's never going to be hundreds of mines.

ELIZABETH BAIER: Sand mines have been part of the landscape in Minnesota and Wisconsin for more than a century. The sand has been used mostly in local glass and construction industries. Broberg says despite the demand from energy companies, there are limitations to how much sand mining will actually happen in the region because existing infrastructure can only handle so many loads.

JEFF BROBERG: The maximum amount of mining that's going to occur in our area is totally predicated on how many load outs there are and how much capacity there is for empty rail cars and the ability to transport it out of this area. So it's not as big an issue as people think in terms of landscape impact.

ELIZABETH BAIER: Across the river in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin Industrial Sand operates a 1,500-acre facility. It produces more than 600,000 tons of sand a year.

RICH BUDINGER: This is our primary portal that we're going into right now.

ELIZABETH BAIER: Rich Budinger is regional manager for Wisconsin Industrial Sand. The mine is a complex series of tunnels, air vents, and columns about 250 feet beneath the surface of the bluff. Miners use loaders to grab sand, wash it, and haul it out of the mine. This mine has been here since 1929. Budinger says his company is working with local communities to address trucking, noise, and air quality concerns. He acknowledges some surface mines will turn bluffs into flat farm fields, but says it's a small part of the overall landscape.

RICH BUDINGER: It's not like we're mining all the state of Wisconsin. There are certain areas, small tracts of land, and I know there are some concentrated areas like in Chippewa Falls and Arcadia and Tomah, Black River Falls area, where there's five or six mines that you could see from each one of the mines. And just as long as the counties are working with the companies as far as reclamation, the mine mines themselves are what we consider short-term uses of the land.

ELIZABETH BAIER: Local governments regulate these mining operations in both states, but the rules are a patchwork of ordinances and zoning laws that vary by township and county. Both states' natural resource agencies issue permits to regulate storm water, air quality, and water usage. Unlike small, local sand mines that have existed for hundreds of years, this has the potential to involve thousands of acres and many more sites. And it's tied to the oil and gas industry that's experiencing its own boom times. Steven Taff is an agricultural economist at the University of Minnesota. He says silica sand mining highlights the debate people have engaged in for decades, how to regulate varying land uses.

STEVEN TAFF: In some senses, this is no different than a proposal to put in a feedlot. It's not much different, in some cases, than people proposing to expand a dairy operation, which will have more cows and possibly more manure. Communities have created procedures to try to work through some of these issues.

ELIZABETH BAIER: Taff says creating these procedures is what counties in southeastern Minnesota hope to do now during the moratoriums. He says even though the region has never been a place where land use stays the same for long, the decisions made now will impact residents in the region for years to come. Elizabeth Baier, Minnesota Public Radio News, Maiden Rock, Wisconsin.