For years, ethanol has been touted as a “cleaner fuel alternative” with little discussion regarding growing environmental concerns related to increased acreage production, questionable comparable fuel efficiency, production impacts to air and water and a major change in infrastructure. While there are no easy answers to the ethanol dilemma, Prairie Rivers Network is focusing on the many issues that need to be addressed regarding the process by which the ethanol production industry is permitted to use and discharge water in the State of Illinois.
Ethanol production plants are regularly marketed to the public as non-wastewater producing or as only discharging non-contact cooling water. This is not necessarily the case. For every gallon of ethanol produced, most plants will discharge approximately two gallons of wastewater with potentially high levels of concentrated contaminants either directly to a surface waterway or indirectly to be treated at a municipal wastewater facility.
Of course, this assumes that plants function exactly as planned. There are many examples, however, of ethanol plants that have illegally discharged or experienced equipment failures and dumped toxic chemicals into adjoining streams. For instance, according to officials at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, there have been numerous violations filed against ethanol plants in their state for illegal discharges into streams of pollutants such as syrup, bad batches of ethanol, and sewage. Similar records can be found in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota. Large-scale spills at or en route to or from these plants can also occur and are of particular concern as ethanol travels quickly through the soil and can readily contaminate groundwater.
In addition to the impacts ethanol production can have on water quality, these plants are highly consumptive water users. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, it takes about three gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. This industry-supplied estimate is conservative though, and depending on the size of the facility and the process used, up to eight gallons of water per gallon of fuel may actually be required with up to six gallons lost due to evaporation. Clearly, this could have a significant impact on ground and surface water supplies if the number of ethanol plants in Illinois grows at the rate that has been proposed by some in the industry.
Generally, ethanol production facilities pump their source water from nearby aquifers, though some plants have chosen to or propose to withdraw from surface waters such as rivers. Whether drawing from ground or surface water, this extraction poses problems for public water supplies as more ethanol facilities are being built without a comprehensive review of long-term impacts to the water resources. Unsustainable withdrawals from groundwater sources may contribute to a lowering of the water table, affecting local wells and reducing base flows in nearby streams.
Our understanding of groundwater reserves and pumping capacity are not well understood in Illinois, especially in rural areas where we must rely on a patchwork of already drilled wells for most of our information. In addition, withdrawals from ground or surface waters are not tracked or regulated in the state, and there are no established in-stream flow requirements. This means that current law does not restrict large withdrawals that will likely accompany the growing number of ethanol plants and does not protect the many water uses and public benefits that come from water left in the stream or in the ground.
Prairie Rivers Network is concerned about the pace at which permits for ethanol plants are being approved without substantial review of the potential impacts due to water withdrawals and wastewater discharges. As such, we will be working with key partners to establish criteria for ethanol plant siting, construction and operation, and will be promoting the need for water usage controls generally in Illinois, in an effort to protect our streams from unsustainable withdrawals and contaminated waste streams.