Troubled Legacy
Saturday, March 17, 2007 11:47 PM PDT
Kristin Gribben
Argus Observer
Ontario
Ethanol plants in the Midwest have faced scrutiny by state, federal and private organizations for polluting the environment and many have also been plagued by complaints of excessive noise, foul odor and lingering health problems.
Supporters of a local effort to site a bio-refinery in Malheur County, though, said they are optimistic about the potential benefits of ethanol production from their facility.
Advocates of the $77 million bio-refinery project assert it will create more than 60 jobs. A number of local leaders, the Oregon Department of Economic Development and Gov. Ted Kulongoski worked to get Treasure Valley Renewable Resources, the company behind the bio-refinery concept, to situate the plant in Malheur County after zoning issues and local opposition scuttled the venture in Payette County.
TVRR plans to produce a number of byproducts at its facility, including ethanol.
TVRR’s biorefinery would produce ethanol in a similar process utilized by ethanol plants in the Midwest. The main difference, TVRR project manager John Hamilton said, is the Malheur County bio-refinery will not dry the wet seed which aggravates odor problems for residents near ethanol plants.
Hamilton conceded that odor will still be a concern and there is no way of avoiding it. The best TVRR can do is design the plant to reduce noise and smell, a task Hamilton said he believes his company can accomplish.
Bitter Harvest
In some states across the Midwest concerns about ethanol plants has sparked lawsuits.
In Caro, Mich., nearly two dozen residents are plaintiffs against the local ethanol plant over concerns about noise and smell.
Caro residents are expected to file a suit in federal court in Bay City Mich., soon concerning the ethanol plant.
ABC TV news reporter Terry Camp, based in Saginaw, Mich., has covered the Caro lawsuit for Channel 12. Camp said that Caro residents were upset about the plant even before it was completed a year ago, citing health-associated problems, noise and odor discomfort.
“People in Caro are upset. They think they were lied to from the beginning and laws were skirted to get the plant in the area,” Camp said.
He reported the biggest problem with the ethanol plant was the secrecy involved in its construction and thereafter.
“They don’t talk or they say ‘no comment,’” Camp said of plant officials.
The Caro ethanol plant was originally slated for construction in Vassar Township, Michigan. A local official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said the upheaval caused by the proposed plant in Vassar led to a recall of most town officials.
Most negative publicity regarding ethanol plants comes from Minnesota, where problems swirling around ethanol facilities in that state prompted the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health to get involved.
12 Minnesota plants were investigated by the EPA and found to be emitting dangerous levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
VOCs, Hamilton said, are emitted anytime natural gas is burned. Hamilton said TVRR’s biorefinery will only emit around 100 tons of VOCs, a minor source he said.
Though a minor source, the 100 ton VOC baseline is an ambitious goal compared with the emissions of ethanol plants in Minnesota. Those plants were mandated by the EPA to reduce VOC standards by 2,400 to as many as 4,000 tons.
Hamilton said the TVRR biorefinery will comply with all new EPA regulations, because if it does not, the biorefinery will not break ground.
Significantly, new EPA regulations deal mostly with environmental air quality and not health problems.
George Czerniak, Chief of Air Enforcement Branch for EPA Region 5 — an area that includes Minnesota — said the agency found ethanol VOC emissions were higher than previously thought. VOC emissions for ethanol plants in Minnesota, Czerniak said, are now up to EPA standards
“The EPA is in the process of securing pollution controls across the country,” Czerniak said.
Both Hamilton and TVRR investor, Payette County Commissioner Dennis Codr, claim that problems with ethanol plants in the Midwest, particularly in Minnesota, really only point to one plant: Gopher State ethanol in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Gopher State ethanol plant was formed out of a 100 year old brewery with no upgrades, Hamilton said. Since March 2002, the plant has run into three major fires, sending 20 people to the hospital on one occasion.
Problems at Gopher State prompted Minnesota officials to investigate other plants, and the findings showed that challenges at Gopher State are not unique to that plant nor the state as a whole.
In Benson, Minnesota the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. was shaken by an explosion on Oct. 22, that sent one worker to the hospital for burn-related injuries and killed a second employee.
In Nebraska, Sutherland Ethanol Co. in North Platte, has been charged with dumping pollutants on farmland near the plant, forcing the company to pay the state $780,000 in July. The ethanol by-product included ammonia, nitrogen, phosphate, and biochemical oxygen demand concentrates. The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has reported the plant dumping at least 83 times in a three-month span.
Rita Messing, a registered Sanitarian and Inspector at the Minnesota Department of Health, said residents in Minnesota who live near the 14 ethanol plants in the state have reported cases of irritated eyes, nose and skin, in addition to coughing and sneezing. Concerned residents also claim the smell discharged from the plants is bothersome, Messing said.
Messing said while the EPA has forced Minnesota plants and eventually plants all across the country to restrict VOC emissions, she takes issue with the emission of organic acids, formaldehyde and alcohols from ethanol plants. Messing also said that health risks associated with odor are largely unknown because health studies make it difficult to identify the odor as the source of health problems because of variables like weather conditions.
Codr said that the problems in Minnesota are negligible and will be avoided in Malheur County’s biorefinery.
“Pouring ethanol down the drain is like pouring Jack Daniels down the drain,” Codr said, asserting that ethanol production is not as lethal or dangerous as some claim.
Jack Daniels, like most liquor, contains 40 percent alcohol, while ethanol is 100 percent alcohol. Since ethanol is a highly flammable substance, and a contributing cause to fires at ethanol facilities in Minnesota, additional health and environmental concerns have been raised by such entities as the Minnesota Department of Health.
Hamilton said that TVRR’s biorefinery will follow safe procedures preventing fires and explosions related to the flammable liquid. Ethanol, Hamilton added, is easily suppressed by water.
