Coming soon to your home, wherever you live, earthquakes. You too can live on a newly created fault line caused by fracking. Ohio, for the first time ever, experienced earthquakes. But that is not all. Soon you will have the advantage of filling your gas tank with water from your outdoor faucet (or indoor if you prefer.) Need charcoal starter? Throw on a glass of water and light. All thanks to the oil and gas industry. When you sell your soul to the devil, you can experience hell on earth.

I'm originally from this community. Thank God my children aren't breathing that air. what's going on, Minnesota? Aren't there regulations or consultations? Can any "entrepreneur" just dump and dig without warning? Can't the state or ctiy at least demand health and safety statistics? If there are fears about the effects (both health and overall environmental impact) then certainly the people of Southeastern Minnesota have a right to know and to determine what kind of industries they feel are safe.

Typical article in Mn about dangers of any land business just like mining and Polymet. Being from Mn I love the land, but lets get real. They even have to claim sand causes cancer. Are you kidding me? Then again the Democrats are trying to regulate dust on farms and now the hours kids can work on a farm. If 100 years ago farmers had the current regulatory environment Mn wouldn't be home to so many farmers. So if you don't drill, mine, or manufacture what is left other than welfare and Walmart? Then people wonder why the middle class is shrinking.

Can't imagine anyone in town liking this. Are the residents of Winona not breathing Silica dust? The cars sure are coated.

Do you think the featured picture for this article is a little biased? How many locations did this photographer have to try before settling on this imposing angle?

If we had the mindset we have today when this country was formed we'd still be hitching up the buggy to see the doctor for a theraputic blood letting.

The opposition contends something bad may happen from sand mineing. So did those who have opposed all life enhancing innovations in human history. The obligation of proof lies with those who fear harm from any new technology including "fracking" and expanding sand minning. They would be laughed off the stage if they said evil spirits might be released due to sand minning. Ralph C Whaley MD

This is sad. Opportunities discovered and exploited by a generation can cause challenges to subsequent ones.

I spent the past three years down in Winona as a student, and I never was aware of this operation at all. I chose my schooling down there largely to how scenic and quaint the town is, and I would hate to see it be affected. I learned though in my time there that the town is deteriorating because it thrives on the college students to provide business. There's an unbelievable amount of closed or run down buildings and this town could use whatever help it could get. I was always told the locals were reluctant to change and they for the most part want nothing to do with outside businesses and rather build from within the community. This philosophy seems to have led them to the brink of despair though. I think this town must allow mining to continue within the right terms, otherwise the only thing Winona will have left will be the schools.

Read the story in this weeks rolling stone magazine and find out what this fracking REALLY does to our environment.