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Member Research & Reports

Member Research & Reports

Iowa Researchers Highlight Potential Environmental Impacts of Frac Sand Mining

Crystal clear spring-fed streams, scenic rock outcroppings, and tree-lined bluffs attract thousands of tourists to northeast Iowa for trout fishing, canoeing, and other forms of outdoor recreation. But demand for the region’s abundant natural deposits of the specialty sand used by the hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – industry threatens the area’s water quantity, water quality, recreation, and tourism, according to newly published research.