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Sunday, September 11, 2005

Environment - What is it like to live near an ethanol plant?

The Muncie StarPress reports today:

Because of the possibility of an ethanol plant being sited in Delaware, Randolph or another nearby county, The Star Press sent reporter Seth Slabaugh and photographer Kyle Evens to Illinois on Aug. 29 to find out what it's like to live near such a factory.
Some quotes from the lengthy story:
PALESTINE, Ill. - Robert Mitchell lives with a Lincolnland Agri-Energy ethanol plant in his back yard.

When he looks out his kitchen window, Mitchell can see the plant's pair of 200,000-bushel corn silos, four 750,000-gallon fermentation and beer tanks, water-cooling towers, distillation tanks, a million-gallon ethanol storage tank farm, molecular sieves, a smokestack, train cars, semi tractor-trailers and buildings.

"They're very nice and friendly neighbors, and it's very good for the community because it brings jobs," Mitchell said. "But I've got a 6,000-square-foot house I can't give away."

The reasons? Noise, odor and fear.

A pro-business community, Palestine welcomed the ethanol plant, which brought 31 jobs to town when it opened last year. Community leaders say those jobs and other economic benefits outweigh the disadvantages of a little noise and odor. One neighbor says the plant lets out a bothersome, uninterrupted "roar." The general manager counters that the noise is more of a "hum" and that no neighbors have complained to him about it.

And then there's the odor the plant gives off. "I think it smells good, like rising bread, but some don't like it," Mitchell said.

But if you live close enough to the factory, the sweet scent it produces can enter your house and stick to furniture, clothing and bedding, according to one neighbor.

A second story today is headlined "Ethanol refinery helps railroad, trucking, farming industries." Some quotes:
PALESTINE, ILL. - The Lincolnland Agri-Energy ethanol plant is filling economic development officials with enthusiasm.

Besides the construction jobs and the 31 full-time, permanent jobs the business created, it is helping the regional railroad and trucking industries, boosting the price of corn by several cents a bushel, drawing international attention, and possibly attracting new industry. * * *

Ethanol and dried distillers grain might not be the only so-called "value-added" products that Lincolnland produces.

"There are a lot of compatible industries that fit in," [[Bob Berty, executive director of Crawford County Development Association] said. "For example, ethanol plants emit carbon dioxide, which can be used to make dry ice."

He added: "There are a lot of studies about this refinery. I keep calling it a refinery, because it's exactly the same situation that goes on in a refinery. From the road, it looks like a grain storage facility. But inside, it looks like a refinery, with all the piping and chemical processes that go on. It's like a smaller version of an oil refinery when you go through there.

"We won't know the full affect on the economy for several years, but it will be extremely positive. It's made people feel positive about things. It was built so it could double its capacity relatively easy."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 11, 2005 08:46 AM
Posted to Environment | Indiana economic development