Three months.

90 days.

2,160 hours.

129,600 minutes.

7,776,000 seconds.

The clock is ticking on Winona County’s three-month moratorium on frac sand mining. Come April 10, Winona County officials and the county board will need to make an informed, thoughtful decision on whether to extend the moratorium or open its doors — with conditions — to the booming business.

Is some form of study necessary for sand mining in the county? Absolutely. Any time the word “rush” is bandied about, it’s smart to curb the headiness and allow cooler heads to prevail.

So we commend the board for approving the moratorium, despite the objections of commissioners Marcia Ward and Wayne Valentine, who both argued that the county’s current land-use ordinance adequately addresses sand mining.

(It’s worth pointing out that Ward fought that ordinance tooth and nail, and Valentine ran for election last year on his opposition to it.)

Now there are three months to answer every question about the potential effects of sand mining. There are plenty, from road damage to environmental effects.

“We’re going to be aggressive about this,” said Jason Gilman, the county’s new community and environmental services director.

We trust he’s right. There’s no time to waste. The board cannot return three months from now with recycled words and opinions. It cannot fall, weak-kneed, under the weight of a decision that potentially affects countless residents. That wouldn’t be fair to anyone involved, not to the folks with sand on their land, not to the opponents of sand mining.

Aggressive. Gilman’s right: That’s the word. Start asking the questions that need to be answered. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Good sand knows no county lines, and it’s been in demand elsewhere for years. Just ask Chippewa County, or any number of other western Wisconsin counties.

While considering the pursuit of answers, another suggestion recently arose: an environmental review of Saratoga Township, the as-yet epicenter for sand mining in the county.

Now there’s an idea.

The state’s two forms of environmental reviews — environmental assessment worksheets and the more intensive environmental impact statements — have well-established methods and standards for investigating and reporting the possible environmental consequences of land uses.

Are the reviews perfect? No. Do they help provide the right questions to ask? Yes.

A review might take several months — or in the case of an EIS, more than a year — to complete. But it would answer the necessary questions, once and definitively.

The clock is ticking.

Get to it, Winona County.

— Winona Daily News. Jan. 18