Where is all of that sand going?

Over the last few months there has been a steady stream of eighteen wheeled tractor trucks passing through jasper with large boxes of sand, leading many people to wonder about the shipments and where they are going. Reliable sources in the oil field industry say the sand is being used in fracking operations designed to bring gas and oil from rock formations very deep in the ground. As part of the process water is injected at very high pressure into the subterranean rocks and boreholes to force open existing fissures or cracks ultimately releasing oil and natural gas. Once the fractures occur, sand is forced into the cracks to keep them from closing up and at the same time allowing the oil or gas to flow through the sand to the recovery point where it is brought out of the ground. Those in the industry say the process can sometimes require millions of pounds of sand at one well, requiring that a lot of sand be trucked to the location. Word_.is that most of the boxes traveling through Jasper are loaded with 54,000 pounds or 27 tons of sand. Almost all of the sand traveling through our area is coming from sand pits located east of the Sabine River in Beauregard Parish, just west of DeRidder. The sand is coming into jasper County on Highway 1.90 and then transported to well sites to the north of here by Highway 96 and to the west of here by way of Highways 63 and 19o. Those close to the operation say the sandpits near DeRidder operate day and night recovering the sand and loading the trucks.