A Cybercast News Service analysis of EPA records found 73 biorefineries - more than 60 percent of those operating - were cited by state or federal agencies for environmental violations in the last three years. The vast majority involve state or federal clean air laws.
"They've brought the enforcement actions against a number of ethanol companies and refineries for essentially sidestepping the law," said Frank O'Donnell, president of the non-partisan Clean Air Watch. "Ethanol refineries have the potential to pollute quite a bit."
Fordland, Mo., bed and breakfast owner Larry Alberty agreed. He and his rural neighbors are fighting a proposed ethanol plant in nearby Rogersville.
They fear the plant's proposed 12-acre wastewater holding pond will seep into groundwater - the plant will be built on top of a major aquifer - and that the project will harm tourism in the area with its smokestacks and noise.
"Eleven million people visit this area [each year]," Alberty said. "People aren't going to want to come to the bed and breakfast and hear the noise and the light pollution ... it has an impact there and we're very concerned about it."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200706/NAT20070613a.html
Another day and another horror story about what the Webster County ethanol plant will contribute to the Ozarks. This contribution is anything but positive. A partial list of the horrors in store for both Webster County and the Ozarks reads like a Stephen King novel: Polluted water; toxic chemcials released into the air and a depleted Ozarks Aquifer.
ALL of these horrors will be subsidized by our tax dollars. We will be paying for this "TOXIC TERROR" to inhabit and stalk the Ozarks, spewing its poisons all around; into our drinking water and on the ground.
Showing posts with label EPA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EPA. Show all posts
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
CANCER ALLEY COMES TO THE OZARKS
EPA Finds Worrisome Levels Of Toxic Air Pollutants At Ethanol Plant
Factories that convert corn into the gasoline additive ethanol are releasing carbon monoxide, methanol and some carcinogens at levels "many times greater" than they promised, the government says.
In an April 24 letter to the industry's trade group, the Environmental Protection Agency said the problem is common to "most, if not all, ethanol facilities."
Recent tests have found VOC emissions ranging from 120 tons a year, for some of the smallest plants, up to 1,000 tons annually, agency officials said.
It is said that we didn't inherit this land from our ancestors, we're borrowing it from our children. Is a legacy of polluted water and the air we need to breathe filled with cancer causing agents what we will leave our children?
The Rogersville plant is the wrong place for a quick fix deal that will leave a toxic legacy lasting for generations.
Factories that convert corn into the gasoline additive ethanol are releasing carbon monoxide, methanol and some carcinogens at levels "many times greater" than they promised, the government says.
In an April 24 letter to the industry's trade group, the Environmental Protection Agency said the problem is common to "most, if not all, ethanol facilities."
Recent tests have found VOC emissions ranging from 120 tons a year, for some of the smallest plants, up to 1,000 tons annually, agency officials said.
It is said that we didn't inherit this land from our ancestors, we're borrowing it from our children. Is a legacy of polluted water and the air we need to breathe filled with cancer causing agents what we will leave our children?
The Rogersville plant is the wrong place for a quick fix deal that will leave a toxic legacy lasting for generations.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
POISONING OUR WATER AND AIR
WASHINGTON, DC - The federal government said today that it will permit corn milling facilities that make ethanol for fuel to emit more than double the amount of air pollutants previously allowed. The new rule is expected to increase the amount of ethanol available for fuel.
The final rule issued today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, treats facilities producing ethanol for human consumption, industrial use or fuel equally under Clean Air Act permitting requirements.
Until today, corn milling plants that make ethanol for use as a fuel additive have only been allowed to emit 100 tons of polluting emissions per year, while plants that make ethanol for human consumption have been permitted to emit 250 tons per year.
The new EPA rule allows all ethanol producers using corn or other carbohydrate feedstocks to emit 250 tons of air pollutants per year.
That's 500,000 POUNDS of air pollutants released into the air we breathe each year. Or, almost 1,400 pounds of air pollutants released EVERY SINGLE DAY, 365 days a year. Combine this with the pollution that will be released into the air and watershed from the thousand of vehicles transporting grain in and ethanol out of the facility and one has a nightmare scenario for residents in Southwest Missouri.
Everyone in SW Missouri will be drinking the same polluted water and breathing the same toxic air.
The final rule issued today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, treats facilities producing ethanol for human consumption, industrial use or fuel equally under Clean Air Act permitting requirements.
Until today, corn milling plants that make ethanol for use as a fuel additive have only been allowed to emit 100 tons of polluting emissions per year, while plants that make ethanol for human consumption have been permitted to emit 250 tons per year.
The new EPA rule allows all ethanol producers using corn or other carbohydrate feedstocks to emit 250 tons of air pollutants per year.
That's 500,000 POUNDS of air pollutants released into the air we breathe each year. Or, almost 1,400 pounds of air pollutants released EVERY SINGLE DAY, 365 days a year. Combine this with the pollution that will be released into the air and watershed from the thousand of vehicles transporting grain in and ethanol out of the facility and one has a nightmare scenario for residents in Southwest Missouri.
Everyone in SW Missouri will be drinking the same polluted water and breathing the same toxic air.
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