Air Pollution

If the Northeast Ethanol Plant is allowed to go in as planned, it will be the 2nd largest polluter in Lackawanna County.  It makes you wonder what might happen if the plant expands?  Particularly since the plant has been designed by the Delta-T company so it can be converted to run on waste incineration (burning garbage) instead of natural gas.  Below is a summary of where the plant will rank in each category against other monitored intustrial facilities in Lackawanna County, do you want this in your backyard or near our elementary school?

Ø      Nitrogen Dioxide

Ø      Sulfer Dioxide

Ø      Carbon Monoxide

Ø      Particulate Matter

Ø      Fine Particulate Matter

Ø      Volitile Organic Compounds

Please, don't take our word for it, go search eFacts at the DEP Website and see for yourself:

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/

 Here is a great document that compares the emissions that Northeast Ethanol plans to release into the atmosphere in one year to two other facilities.  These emissions total 340 tons of pollutants.  Other comparable facilities like Bionil have been proposed at nearly half of that level.  What are they planning to do that will produce that much additional pollution?

This document explains in detail the effects of each toxin that is emitted by ethanol plants, and explains what the emission levels are in the Bionil facility.  Keep in mind that the Bionil plant will emit about half of the proposed Mayfield plant.  Notice that there is NO CONTINUOUS MONITORING for most of these toxins and carcinogens, also note that they can be emitted not only from the stack, but some may also leak into the ground from the storage tanks.  These tanks are not sealed and they allow overflow so excessive pressure doesn’t build up, the excess spills out and goes into a retaining pond where chemicals leach into the soil.

 A physician provided us with this additional documentation regarding the health effects of the pollutants that are emitted by the ethanol production process.

Ethanol Is Not the Answer to Our Alternative Energy Needs:

The following 2 articles from The Discovery Channel and Scientific American explain that ethanol does NOT reduce pollution as an alternative to gasoline, it actually increase two common pollutants (formaldehyde and acetaldehyde).  Ethanol also increases ground-level ozone, otherwise known as smog.  This is likely to result in emergency room visits for people with breathing problems such as asthma & COPD.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/04/18/ethanolhealth_hea.html?category=health&guid=20070418093030

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?SID=mail&articleID=07520EDF-E7F2-99DF-3F39F759D467DFCD 

These three articles describe serious concerns over the effect that excessive ethanol production will start having on water availability given the large amount that is necessary to produce ethanol:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5154394.html

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2007/2007-09-21-091.asp

http://www.parsonssun.com/news/articles/ethanol092107.shtml

Biofuels disperse more greenhouse gasses than oil:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297681,00.html

Water Contamination

More to Come!!
 

Chemical and Propellant Storage

Coming Soon!!

Property Values

Coming Soon!!

 
Similar Situations

Here is a group of people in Virginia dealing with the same issue that we have.  Lucky for them, they’re 2 miles away from it instead of a couple hundred feet.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1737114/
 

Another from Virginia:

http://cjonline.com/stories/092207/sta_201802786.shtml

General Resources

Here are some general resources, many of the links on this page were obtained at these sites.
 

Energy Justice Network

This is a primary source for a lot of our research, and our friend Mike Ewall has been a tremendous help!

 
http://www.energyjustice.net/ethanol/

Cambrians For Thoughtful Development

Excellent site, another comprehensive source, please review as much as possible.

 
http://homepage.mac.com/oscura/ctd/value.html

Lot of info on this page as well:

http://www.c4aqe.org/

Seeing Through The Marketing
This is an EXCELLENT resource that really exposes the myth and reality, the fact and the fiction.  Take note of the plume photos.  The plant operators can scale back and charge forward based on what is convenient (i.e. an inspection or emissions reading, a tour, etc), one thing that never factors into the equation is your health:

http://homepage.mac.com/oscura/ctd/production.html

Greenwashing

Here is a link that thoroughly describes the term “Greenwashing.”  That’s when a business take a dirty polluting industry and wraps it up in environmentally friendly packaging:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Greenwashing