Opposition to ethanol plant growing

By Karl Ebert of the Northwestern

A trip to Minnesota by the head of Oshkosh’s industrial development corporation is adding to the arsenal of opponents to a proposed ethanol plant in the town of Algoma.

About a dozen people spoke in opposition to the plant at a public hearing Wednesday night, but the majority represented not town, but city interests. They included representatives of Oshkosh organizations including Chamco Inc., the city’s industrial development arm; the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce and the Oshkosh Area School District, all of whom drew heavily on the work of Doug Pearson, Chamco’s executive director. Pearson spent three days in Minnesota last week touring ethanol plants and talking to residents, regulators and local government officials about the plants in St. Paul and Benson, near Minnesota’s western border.

The bottom line, Pearson told the Winnebago County Planning and Zoning Committee Wednesday, is that the plants smell bad, even with state-of-the-art odor control equipment. The committee had a hearing on a conditional-use permit for the plant Wednesday, but will not take action until October. The Algoma Town Board, which must take the first action on the permit application delayed a vote for two months to allow more time to gather information about the plant. More than 200 town residents signed a petition opposing the ethanol plant, which opponents argue will create more traffic, noise and an offensive odor. Kelly Schutzbank, who would be a close neighbor of the plant, said the owners too easily dismiss residents’ concerns because they won’t be living near the plant. “They don’t live within a quarter mile of the plant and they don’t have to put up with it 24 hours a day,” she said.

Officials from Algoma Ethanol LLC, the company proposing the $20 million plant, don’t deny the plants can emit a strong odor. But they and their environmental consultants argue the equipment will eliminate 99 percent of the odor traditionally associated with ethanol plants.

Ethanol plants grind and ferment corn to produce ethanol for use as a gasoline additive. An odor is created when the processed corn is dried for use as animal feed. Thermal oxidizing equipment proposed for the plant would heat exhaust from the dryer to destroy the particles and gases that cause the odor, said Todd Potas, an environmental consultant working with the company. “That system has been very successful,” Potas said.

But Pearson said the equipment has had limited success in St. Paul, the sole plant in which the equipment has been installed. Pearson said the risks of an offensive and difficult-to-regulate odor outweigh the plant’s benefit of 30 jobs and a $4 million boost to the town’s property tax base.

Of all the research, though, Pearson said one of the most telling comments came from a state Department of Commerce staff member who asked “does Oshkosh need the jobs enough to take on all these problems?” “I think that says a lot for how much we feel is at stake here,” Pearson said. “Itís a quality-of-life issue. We do industrial development to improve the quality of life and when we see an industrial development about to be undertaken that is going to adversely impact quality of life, we better look at what it will do and ask ourselves if it is worth it.”

KARL EBERT: (920) 426-6688 OR KEBERT@SMGPO.GANNETT.COM