A Missouri court has ruled against a company seeking a permit to mine silica sand to be used in fracking.
The ruling from the Missouri Court of Appeals at St. Louis supported a decision by the Missouri Mining Commission to revoke a permit by Nexgen Silica, which wants to mine sand on 249 acres of rural land near Highway 32 in Ste. Genevieve County. The site is also near Hawn State Park and midway between the cities of St. Louis and Cape Girardeau.
Nextgen indicated it intended to mine the sand for fracking and ship it down the nearby Mississippi River.
The Mining Commission declared that Nexgen’s application was incomplete and the Court of Appeals agreed. It said the application failed to list all people with a property interest in the area where the mining was to be conducted.
“We agree with the Mining Commission, and find that Nexgen’s permit application was incomplete. The application failed to identify multiple parties with an interest in the land,” the court said in a decision written by Judge Angela Quigless. “We find the Mining Commission’s decision was not unlawful; was not in excess of its jurisdiction; and was not unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious.”
The mining permit was opposed by a group called Operation Sand, residents who said the project would ruin the natural landscape and degrate water systems.
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch