“When is enough enough?" questioned Al Davis, spokesman for the Perivallon Group. The AltEn Ethanol Plant near Mead is experiencing dangerous circumstances once again.
Al Davis sent NTV News a press release detailing the situation:
Enormous whales full of explosive, toxic gases have developed under damaged, leaking lagoon liners requiring plant personnel to don hazmat suits; animals are burrowing into and weakening lagoon berms; rotting pesticide-laden seed corn and biochar have been discovered on the ground subject to weather conditions; and the plant’s ownership and manager have been cited for failing to comply with monitoring, sampling, and testing requirements related to cooling water as required by the plant’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
Large tears to liners in two wastewater lagoons have allowed significant amounts of wastewater containing ethanol fermentation liquid wastes stored in the lagoons to drain into the soil layer below and weaken earthen berms surrounding each lagoon.
This wastewater contains high concentrations of pesticides and their metabolite breakdown products. Trapped pockets of gas released by the decomposition of organic wastes under the liners have caused balloon-like inflations — called whales — to rise above the water levels in the lagoons, many clearly visible on satellite imagery.
The trapped gases contain explosive and highly toxic levels of methane, hydrogen sulfide, and neonicotinoid insecticides and fungicides, and toxic breakdown products. Uncontrolled releases of these gas mixtures threaten public safety, particularly the workers employed on-site and emergency responders.
In a process approved by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE), contractors are making insertions through the largest whale and the gas mixture is piped to a catalytic oxidizer unit designed to burn off the methane and hydrogen sulfide and, presumably, to incinerate volatile pesticide waste.
“In principle, this plan would burn off the explosive gases and catalytically break down other toxic volatiles while contractors on-site monitor for any dangerous discharges of methane and hydrogen sulfide,” said John Schalles, Ph.D., Creighton University Biology Department. “It is not clear from documents posted publicly whether the much more sophisticated and expensive monitoring needed to measure for volatile pesticide residues is also being performed. Additionally, fractions of the neonicotinoid insecticides and fungicides, which contain chlorine side groups, might be transformed into far more toxic dioxins during this high-temperature breakdown process. If so, it is imperative that the system being used captures and fully destroys any dioxins created as by-products.”
An emergency plan submitted by the AltEn Facility ResponseGroup (AFRG) to address the latest AltEn crisis acknowledges that deflation of the whales cannot be completed before this winter. The plan indicates that the deflation will take most of next year to complete.
“The question is whether this problem will slow down other work underway to deal with the large and complex problems posed by the negligence of AltEn ownership and management,” noted Schalles. “Among those problems are the fates of the treated wastewater, wet cake solids, and large amounts of biochar stored on site. The biochar contains high levels of pesticide residues and because of the pyrolytic process used to produce the biochar from contaminated wet cake, it could also contain dioxins. It should be noted that dioxins could also have been released into the air of Saunders County during AltEn’s period of biochar production so comparative testing of soils, sediments, and wildlife in proximity to the plant site and control sites some distances away should be completed.”
Further, in a November 17 letter of non-compliance, the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) issued yet another notice to Tanner Shaw, AltEn President, and Scott Tingelhoff, AltEn General Manager, of the plant’s violations of state statute, specifically Title 119 regarding rules and regulations pursuant to National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits.
The letter cites AltEn ownership and management for failing to comply with monitoring, sampling, and testing requirements for the July through September 2021 monitoring period. NDEE has requested that Shaw and Tingelhoff voluntarily sample the cooling water discharge by December 1, 2021, and warned that if they don’t comply, enforcement actions may include referral to the Nebraska Attorney General for penalties of up to $10,000 per day per violation, and/or injunctive relief, a recurring warning from the agency that has never carried out.
Al Davis said, “When is enough enough? Once again, NDEE is issuing threats it has never followed through on with AltEn. There must be consequences for the people behind this ethanol enterprise that continues to risk public health and the environment. The March 1 lawsuit filed by the state against AltEn is stagnating in the court with no forward progress having been made. Nebraska Attorney General Doug Petersen seems to find plenty of time to engage in high-profile national issues that have no relation to the Nebraska citizens who pay his salary. The residents of Saunders County and Nebraska have been woefully neglected by both NDEE and the AG’s office. AltEn’s leadership has thumbed their noses at both regulatory bodies for years now with no consequences. In the meantime, the AltEn disaster is growing worse. State law provides for criminal charges to be brought in this disaster and we believe it is time for that by appropriate county, state, and federal authorities.”
Davis continued, “Further, Nebraska Rev. Statute Section 81-5104 provides NDEE with the authority ‘to obtain such scientific, technical, administrative, and operational services including laboratory facilities, by contract or otherwise, as the director deems necessary.’ This means NDEE could enlist under its umbrella the investigative team of renowned scientists and researchers assembled by the University of Nebraska and Creighton to assist NDEE with testing and sampling on the AltEn site. Otherwise, we may never know the full scope of this disaster and how it might affect Nebraska citizens and the environment in the future.”
Courtesy: Perivallon Group