Work with Us

An engaged community is the best way to keep industry accountable.

There are two mine expansions around the corner: Milestone Materials intends to reactivate the former Kramer pit southwest of Hwy 77 and Gravel Pit Road. Select Materials may apply to open a new pit on forest land near Hildreth Rd.

We need to monitor these applications and prepare appropriate responses at the County Zoning and Town licensing levels.

If you would like alerts and invitations to action meetings, email us using the Contact Us page below.

It’s also critical to show up and comment at meetings of the Town Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, as well as Sawyer County Zoning Commission meetings. Check Town meeting schedule and agendas here. To see County Zoning meetings, check here.

Results of Action

At the Annual Electors Meeting in April, we unanimously passed a resolution asking the Board to protect and enforce the ordinance and govern according to the Town’s Comprehensive Plan, which places the highest priority on protecting the character of our Northwoods community. (The Board has tabled our resolution.)

We have since had four successes in holding mines to account:

1) We alerted Sawyer County Zoning and the Wis. Department of Transportation to flagrant permit violations by a local mine. They both issued Cease and Desist orders. Now we are urging the County to require thorough reclamation of the disturbed sound barrier.

2) We persuaded the Town Land Use Planning Commission to recommend to the Board that they budget for a mine inspector and obtain and review all County conditional use permits (CUPs) for mines in the Town of Round Lake to see whether they are in compliance.

3) We obtained and prepared legal counsel to help us defend the ordinance at the critical July 15 Board meeting. The arguments helped stay a vote to compromise the ordinance.

4) We’ve organized a public information campaign and media relations efforts that help engage more of our community.

In these ways, we’ve sought to work within our system of government—to inform and collaborate with agencies, keep mining operations compliant with agreements, and ensure government remains responsive to citizen voices. This requires ongoing vigilance.

Why 3,000 Feet?

Mine owners contend that Sawyer County’s old zoning setback of 1,000 feet is adequate between mining activity and a home.

Our Ordinance No. 2022-04 uses more current data. It was drafted by a leading environmental law firm, Midwest Environmental Advocates and passed unanimously by our Board in 2022. Here is why its 3,000-foot buffer is important:

1. Groundwater and wells Digging near or into the water table removes the layer of soil that normally filters and buffers surface contamination before it reaches groundwater. Once a pit floor sits at or below the water table, it becomes a direct, unfiltered pathway between the surface and the aquifer. Fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluid from mining equipment can reach groundwater almost immediately if spilled, with no soil layer to slow or filter it. At 1,000 feet, a spill or runoff event has a short path to nearby wells. At 3,000 feet, contaminants have far more distance and time to disperse, settle, or break down before reaching a home’s well. (Minnesota DNR, Hydraulic Impacts of Quarries and Gravel Pits)

2. Dust exposure. Air-dispersion modeling of mining dust (using the EPA’s AERMOD model) found elevated PM10 dust concentrations extending roughly 3 kilometers — about 9,800 feet — from the site before dropping to low levels. At 1,000 feet, homes sit well within the zone of highest measured dust concentration. A 3,000-foot setback is a meaningful improvement over 1,000 feet. It moves homes further from the peak-concentration zone nearest the pit, where levels are highest (MDPI, Modeling PM10 Emissions in Quarry and Mining Operations).

3. Property values. Multiple independent studies find that homes near aggregate mining sell for less, with the steepest losses closest to the pit. A broad review of aggregate-operation studies found price declines of 12 to 20 percent within about a half mile (roughly 2,640 feet), fading to 3 to 14 percent by one mile, and dropping toward zero by about 10 miles. At 1,000 feet, homes sit deep inside the zone where these studies find the largest losses. At 3,000 feet, homes are still close enough to be affected, but move well outside the steepest-decline radius. (Erickcek, 2006, cited in UW-Extension Buffalo County) (Appraisal Institute of Canada — Property Value Impacts Occasioned by Aggregate Extraction Operations)

Why can’t we just rely on Sawyer County for mine regulation? Why have a Town licensing ordinance that mine owners may view as duplicative?

• Sawyer Co. grandfathers permits for mines that are being reactivated, even under a new operator. Home-buyers move next door without notice or disclosure of this possibility.

• They don’t enforce permit conditions unless citizens report violations. We learned that by contesting an illegal road built out of a local pit onto Hwy 77.

• Based on inspection forms, County mine inspections are limited. They confirm taxed acreage, but do not check for any habitat or public safety issues.

All of this means that unless our Town ordinance is preserved and enforced, we have very little protection for our neighborhoods.