January 24, 2002
Tony;
Just read your article on farm subsidies and the ethanol plant. I know that the big objections voiced are about "odor" and "impact on ground water". I'll ignore the spurious "quality of life" issue for the moment. However, I'm very curious to know what the basis is for odor and ground water problems, if indeed there is any.
I've spent a good deal of time researching alternative fuel production, definitely plan to get involved with it myself ASAP, and I can't find any indication whatsoever that there is even any possibility of ground water contamination from ethanol production. Nor with ground water depletion. And, if the plant is designed and run properly, no odor either -- the plant in St. Paul was a converted brewery -- do breweries have odor problems? About as much as bakeries perhaps. And seriously, any odor escaping is money lost.
These are straw man arguments -- alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are extremely benign (in fact, you can drink the stuff) both in production and use.
Harmon Seaver
CyberShamanix