The entire fracking industry is an environmental disaster of cataclysmic proportions. Toxic chemicals pumped deep into the ground, millions of gallons of water pumped from water-scare regions, huge swaths of pristine Midwestern lands mined for sand. Ruinous waste and destruction left behind at every step. And no one says a word, in the name of "energy independence."

How does Mr. Brooks' 30 years as a county personnel officer giving him any expertise on this subject. A lot of innuendo is being thrown about by him and others but they cite nothing specific to back up their comments. I'm still looking for the "gotcha" in this story.

Oil sands is a gift from heaven for this country providing cheap energy and jobs and stopping the import of foreign oil which is ruining our economy. The oil is miles under the ground and the extraction process is perfectly safe so there is no environmental damage from this process as the uninformed CountChocula claims.

Ahem.. Captain ChocolateWindmill. The focus of this article was "sand" not the toxic batteries in your Prius nor the tons of coal burned to power your light rail commute. MN is selling SAND! Or should we offshore that so you can complain about sending jobs overseas?

How are these people different from politicians. judges or others government employees? Don't politicians after helping industries pass laws or approve items become consultants and on the payroll when they leave office? Didn't a recent court case help a justice's wife to collect big money for her T Party cause? These low level government employes are just following the lead of their upper level role models.

Lucrative offers that tempt them? I thought public employees already had sweetheart deals when compared to the private sector? This doesn't make any sense.

Any punk can be bought for a few quick bucks. Our quality of life is threateded for the longrun. SAY NO to the SANDMAN!

"Oil sands is a gift from heaven for this country providing cheap energy and jobs and stopping the import of foreign oil which is ruining our economy."..................I know this isn't the point of this article, but just wanted to clarify one thing. Oil produced from oil sands/fracking isn't "cheap" oil. We've know about these deposits across the US for years, but until oil is consistently above $75-80 a barrel, it's not economical to drill it because of the process...it's much more expensive than traditional oil. We've got a lot of shale oil, but don't count on it lowering the price at the pump much because if oil drops in price, oil companies aren't going to lose money drilling for oil that's hard to extract.

I still don't get why we need any regulation of this kind of stuff at all? Let's save some money. Let's fire all the county workers and just let the mining companies figure out the best and fastest way to use the resources. That will put more money into the economy right? More private jobs! I SURE these out of state corporations have our best interests at heart and will leave their mining sites in pristine condition when they leave with their money. What could go wrong.

BCanniff "Oil sands is a gift from heaven for this country providing cheap energy and jobs and stopping the import of foreign oil which is ruining our economy." ROFLMAO!!!! It isn't the import of foreign oil which is ruining our economy, it's the gluttonous military sucking up all of our tax dollars, the southern Dixiecrat turned conservative Republicans whose districts depend on the gluttonous military, the 1% and their greed for all of the GDP, and the non-contributing NATO countries unwilling to aid in the defense of their people. Anywhere else in the world people are paying twice as much for their gasoline, enjoying pothole free highways and bridges don't collapse. Norway has been pumping oil from the Norway Sea for decades but its people still pay twice as much for fuel as we do. Why? It's infrastructure sucker! Infrastructure.