A Calgary, Canada, firm plans to build a facility along the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks on the northwest side of Wabasha to load rail cars with silica sand mined in Wisconsin.
          
According to its conditional-use permit application filed with the city on September 5th, Superior Sand Systems predicts about 200 hopper trucks, each loaded with 25 tons of sand, would cross the Mississippi River bridge in Wabasha.          They would then travel about 10 blocks to the facility and be loaded into large storage tanks. The trucks would return to Wisconsin by the same route.

The Post-Bulletin reports the sand would come from Buffalo County, Wis., at first, application. But mines in Pepin County, Wis., and Wabasha County could be future sources.
     
No sand processing would be done in Wabasha, according to the application. Hours of operation would be 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekends.