Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Environmental Advocacy Center (EAC) represents several farmers who live in central Illinois in their effort to protect some of Illinois’s richest farm land from environmental harms. As fracking, the process of extracting oil from rock deep below the earth’s surface, began its recent boom, a high demand arose for silica sand, a key component of the fracking process. Silica sand, when mixed with chemicals and water that are injected deep underground, acts as a proppant to keep the cracks in rock open allowing oil and gas to be removed. Central Illinois is rich in farmland and silica sand. Sand mining destroys the farm land and poses serious health and environmental risks to people living and farmng nearby. EAC’s clients have lived and farmed in LaSalle County, Illinois for several generations, but their livelihoods and health are threatened by a “sand rush” that is converting hundreds of acreas of prime farmland into sand mines. Along with the loss of farm land, the mines deplete groundwater and cause other major environmental disturbances including aerial dispersion of hazardous silica sand, blasting, and hundreds of diesel trucks traveling rural roads.
On behalf of the farmers, EAC filed a lawsuit in Illinois state court challenging approval of one of the sand mines planned in LaSalle County. Although the complaint was dismissed in July 2015, the EAC filed an appeal, which was argued in June 2016. EAC students played a large role in the drafting all of the pleadings and briefs both in the lower court and appellate court proceedings and argued motions in the lower court. The EAC and our clients are awaiting a decision from the appellate court on whether the case will be allowed to go forward.
The EAC has also employed other advocacy tools to push the local governments in Illinois to undertake more thoughtful planning concerning sand mine development. With support from the clinic’s long-term Northwestern partner, the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN), the EAC convinced the LaSalle County Board to undertake a groundwater survey being performed by the United States Geological Survey to assess the availability of groundwater in the area where new mines have opened and additional mines are planned. The EAC expects the survey results to provide important information to LaSalle County and local towns as they consider future mines and also to be a model for other regions considering permitting of mining and other industries that use water intensively.
