Wisconsin can protect its place as the leading supplier of sand for the nation’s fracking boom provided it has good regulations in place and promptly addresses any nuisance concerns raised by neighbors of the state’s fast-multiplying sand-mining facilities, according to a former EPA administrator who spoke to a business convention Tuesday in Middleton.

J. Winston Porter, now a Savannah, Ga.-based energy consultant and fracking proponent, also said maximum transparency by state regulators and the companies involved was key to minimizing much of the controversy inherent in any kind of mining operation.

“Obviously on both sides, there are going to be people who are dug in and don’t want to move an inch,” said Porter, who held the No. 2 spot at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush from 1985 to 1989.

“To me, I don’t think sand, per se , is terribly dangerous,” Porter added. “But it’s still mining. If you go to my backyard acreage and you dig giant holes and just leave them there, it’s not good. So it’s going to need to be looked at.”