Webster County Groundwater Impact Committee

More Questions & Answers about the Proposed Ethanol Plant

Since the September 7, 2006, release of the Webster County Groundwater Impact Committee’s (or Committee for short) preliminary report, additional questions have been raised about the proposed ethanol plant. Below are unbiased answers to those questions.

1. Would a housing development of 300 units use much more water than this plant?
No. The 880 gallons per minute (1,267,200 gallons per day) of water Gulfstream Bioflex Energy (GBE) says the ethanol plant would use actually equates to the daily usage of 21,120 people. That's more like a 3,520-unit housing development, assuming each house has six people in it. Assuming a subdivision lot size of 10,000 square feet, such a housing development would cover at least 808 acres. Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) regulations for such a housing development would require the use of a centralized sewage and collection system and could not rely on septic tank systems.

2. Is GBE going to make the 252-acre property a working farm, where they are going to run cattle and raise crops and feed the animals the byproduct feed produced by the plant?
The amount of byproduct feed GBE would create from the plant on a daily basis would be about 825 tons. If GBE feeds this to beef cattle at the recommended amount of 2 pounds per day per animal in the ration, some 825,000 cattle would be needed to eat it. If all these cattle were put into an open feedlot, the feedlot would cover over 5,680 acres. GBE stated to the Committee they plan to ship out the byproduct feed by rail and truck to interested buyers.

3. There is a lot of political support for ethanol production from corn. How much gasoline does it actually replace?
Well-researched university studies indicate that while corn-based ethanol has a positive energy balance (produces more energy than it uses to make it), it currently replaces less than 3 percent of our country’s gasoline usage (see www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/Ethanol_fuel_presents_a_cornundrum.html). If all the remaining corn was converted to ethanol, the total ethanol would offset at most 12-15 percent of gasoline usage. Corn is an intensive user of nitrogen, phosphorus and pesticides, which can contribute to soil erosion and water pollution. Cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel appear to offer much better returns than corn ethanol for biofuel production.

Last revised: 2006-11-08