A community meeting about a plan to use 61.8 million tons of sand from the Red River near Doddridge, Ark., for fracking elsewhere is slated for 6 tonight.
Officials from Performance Proppants of Shreveport, La., will answer questions and host a fish fry today near the banks of the Red River in the Kiblah Community Center in far south Miller County.
"It should be a good question-and-answer session," said Ryan McMaster, director of sales and business development for Performance Proppants.
The meeting will start at 6 p.m. and dinner will be served about 7 p.m., McMaster said. The public is invited.
The company acquired a regional sand deposit near Doddridge in late 2017 and named it River Ridge, according to the company's website.
The company proposes building a sand plant at the site, which is commonly known as the Palmer Place at 2561 Miller County Road 4, according to documents.
The coring analysis indicates 61.8 million tons of recoverable fracking material at the site, according to the company's website. The sand would be used for hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas from other locations.
The plant will create an estimated 38 jobs, according to company officials.
Area resident Verna Kent questions the proposal. She has organized the community meeting and invited company officials to attend to discuss the project with residents.
The meeting will also address the increased truck traffic and potential effects on the air and groundwater from the proposed sand plant and the process of extracting sand from the Red River.
An estimated 200 trucks will travel to and from the plant per day, according to officials.