Midwest Environmental Advocates is a nonprofit law center that combines the power of law with the resolve of communities facing environmental injustice to secure and protect the rights of all people to healthy water, land, and air.

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Home » Our Work » Meteor Timber wetlands fill and frac sand facility

Meteor Timber wetlands fill and frac sand facility

— Meteor Timber, LLC sought approval to destroy an unprecedented amount—16.25 acres—of pristine forested wetlands for a proposed industrial sand facility.

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Victory!
On April 13, 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused to take up a lawsuit involving Meteor Timber’s request for a permit that would allow the out of-state frac sand company to destroy rare wetlands in Monroe County. The Court's decision brought a successful conclusion to nearly five years of litigation. Read our press release here.

Background: Meteor Timber, LLC sought approval from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to destroy an unprecedented amount—16.25 acres—of pristine, forested wetlands in order to build a new industrial sand facility. Meteor Timber asserted that it needed to fill these wetlands to construct a load out facility in Monroe County in the Town of Grant, which would have supplied sand to a planned processing facility in Jackson County.

On behalf of our client, the Ho-Chunk Nation, Midwest Environmental Advocates joined Clean Wisconsin in challenging the permit. DNR should have denied Meteor Timber's application based upon inadequate guarantees against significant adverse impacts to the environment. The project would have destroyed irreplaceable white pine-red maple wetlands that serve as habitat for threatened and endangered species and provide critical ecosystem services like flood prevention.

The Ho-Chunk Nation, MEA, and Clean Wisconsin initially challenged the wetland fill permit in an administrative hearing process that resulted in the invalidation of the permit. Hearing testimony revealed the permit had been granted by DNR managers over the objections of scientific experts within the agency.

MEA successfully defended that legal victory when Meteor Timber tried to persuade the DNR Secretary to reverse the independent administrative law judge’s decision. MEA and Clean Wisconsin were again successful in defending the decision when Meteor Timber subsequently sought judicial review in Monroe County Circuit court and by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

Meteor Timber subsequently petitioned the State Supreme Court to hear the case, but the Court refused, a move that brought a successful conclusion to nearly five years of litigation.

Case Summary

Meteor Timber, LLC sought approval from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to destroy an unprecedented amount—16.25 acres—of pristine, forested wetlands in order to build a new industrial sand facility. Meteor Timber asserted that it needed to fill these wetlands to construct a load out facility in Monroe County in the Town of Grant, which would have supplied sand to a planned processing facility in Jackson County. The project would have destroyed high quality wetlands that provide critical ecosystem services to the county as well as a rare habitat for a number of threatened and endangered species, including the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake.

Midwest Environmental Advocates believes that it isn’t in the public’s interest to destroy pristine wetlands and their essential ecosystem functions in order to make industrial sand mining more profitable. The environmental costs associated with this proposal were simply too great and were not outweighed by Meteor Timber’s attempt to sweeten the deal with wetland restoration and preservation.

In January 2017, representatives of Meteor Timber said the company would clear-cut parcels of land if it does not get permission to fill wetlands for the facility. Midwest Environmental Advocates joined the Ho-Chunk Nation in asking the Army Corps of Engineers to deny permission for the plan to fill wetlands. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign also raised their concerns about complex conflicts of interests for a law firm that serves as Meteor Timber’s attorneys and Jackson County’s corporation counsel.

In early March 2017, the DNR granted preliminary approval before a public comment period. On March 6, 2017, we told WIZM radio that the public needs more details about Meteor Timber’s plan in order to question and comment on the permit proposal.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources held a hearing on Meteor Timber’s request for a wetland fill permit on April 18, 2017 in Tomah, WI. Sarah Geers, MEA staff attorney, attended and spoke during public comments. The hearing was covered by the La Crosse Tribune and WXOW-TV ABC-19.

On Monday, June 19, 2017, Midwest Environmental Advocates – on behalf of the Ho-Chunk Nation – filed a petition to challenge the wetland fill permit issued to Meteor Timber LLC for an industrial sand processing facility and rail project. Clean Wisconsin also challenged the permit and requested administrative review by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

An Administrative Law Judge ultimately ruled in favor of the Ho-Chunk, MEA and Clean Wisconsin by invalidating the Meteor Timber permit. This was a significant victory for the people of Wisconsin, our pristine wetlands, and the integrity of our environmental laws.

Unfortunately, Meteor Timber appealed the Judge's decision to the DNR Secretary. DNR granted Meteor's request for a political appointee to review a well-reasoned administrative decision that is based on extensive legal briefing and evidentiary hearing. Additionally, Meteor Timber appealed the administrative decision by filing a Petition for Judicial Review with Monroe County Circuit Court. MEA responded to Meteor Timber’s petition for judicial review and filed a proactive challenge to the validity of the rule that the DNR relied upon to grant Department review of the Ho-Chunk Nation’s administrative success.

In a decision dated April 30, 2019, DNR Secretary Cole declined to intervene in the impartial judicial process, Read the May 1, 2019 press release here.

In September 2020, a Monroe County Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of our clients, the Ho-Chunk Nation, in a decision that continued to prevent Meteor Timber from obtaining a permit to destroy the wetlands. Read the Sept 21, 2020 press release here.

In December 2021, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the Monroe County Circuit Court's ruling.

Meteor Timber subsequently petitioned the State Supreme Court to hear the case, but in April 2022, the Supreme Court rejected Meteor Timber's request.