Letter: Planning a trip here? Better come quickly

To the Editor:

Shareholders of oil companies interested in this area:

For your next vacation, we invite you to visit the beautiful valley and blufflands of Red Wing, in Goodhue County, Minn. From whatever approach you take to get here, you see the forest covered hills, the area that even the ancient glaciers left alone.

The Mississippi River follows the remains of the River Warren, which drained the glacial Lake Agassiz, and left a spectacular valley lined with bluffs that some of the first settlers here considered mountains. People who care deeply about Lake Pepin are making progress in stopping the sediment deposits from the Mississippi River before it fills in a hundred years. The river and lake are essential for wildlife, commerce, and recreation, and an excellent reason for your visit.

You will need to come soon, though, because we are blessed with silica sand in our bluffs, and your companies are planning to take the sand to areas where it will be used for hydraulic fracturing, and left deep underground. Sections of the bluffs will become acres and acres of sand pits.

Water pumped from our aquifers used to wash this sand is stored in holding ponds that have a history of breaking and draining their contents into nearby rivers, in this case, Lake Pepin. By the time the bluffs are “restored,” Lake Pepin will be a shadow of itself.

Come to see our area, while there’s still something to see!

Pat Tieskoetter

Red Wing

Tags: opinion, letters