Bridgewater Ethanol Debate in Strib South

Ethanol_Plant_lg.jpgBridgewater Township’s struggle with Progressive Rail over a proposed ethanol plant is covered in tomorrow’s StarTribune South section.

Advanced BioEnergy hopes to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol per year. According to an Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy study, it takes 3.5 to 6 gallons of water for every gallon of ethanol produced. The proposed ethanol plant will therefore use between 350 and 600 million gallons of water per year, a question that Locally Grown tried to pursue in its podcast on the topic.

According to the article, Progressive Rail President Dave Fellon told the town board this spring that if the ethanol plant isn’t built, a rail company could pursue industrial use of the land without local approval. Bridgewater is currently considering this “reality”.

2 Comments

  1. Holly Cairns said:

    After reading the Strib’s groundwater article I looked for the latest on the Webster well issue– and ran across this link.

    http://www.oah.state.mn.us/aljBase/220011685.rt.htm

    Seems like another bad break for a farmer but then again I am not for any kind of “dumping.”

    Hmm. I’ve been on walks around here and I’ve watched large red trucks dump something on my neighbor’s land (near the grove between fields). At least I think I saw the truck pumping something out through a large hose…

    This article makes me wonder what’s already being dumped in our rural areas and should we be worried about sweetwater disposal after any new large plants that might be built around here?

    I looked up sweetwater and it seems to be pretty harmless– or is it?

    September 18, 2007
  2. Holly Cairns said:

    Regarding that link and sweetwater–This is the part that concerned me:

    …he was paid $20.00 per tanker truckload of wastewater discharged either into his basin or onto his fields. Testimony of Loren Snesrud. He also indicated that he has been paid $4,000.00 for these truckloads, with an additional $1,000.00 still due and owing. Testimony of Loren Snesrud. At the rate of $20.00 per load, Mr. Snesrud’s testimony reveals that approximately 250 tanker truckloads of wastewater were deposited at his farmstead. Assuming a tanker truck capacity of 5,000 gallons per load, Mr. Snesrud’s testimony suggests a total of 1.25 million gallons of wastewater were delivered to his farm from Minnesota Clean Fuels, Inc. Furthermore, Mr. Snesrud indicated that the holding capacity of his basin is approximately 600,000 gallons. Subtracted from the estimated total amount of wastewater delivered, this leaves 650,000 gallons, or the equivalent of more than another entire basin full of wastewater, unaccounted for.

    September 18, 2007

Leave a Reply to Holly CairnsCancel reply