Heron Lake BioEnergy addresses environmental concerns
Many area citizens attend public meeting

By Ruth Eigenberg Tri County News staff writer

Environmental impacts of the proposed Heron Lake BioEnergy ethanol plant (HLBE) were the topic of concern at the Thursday, February 17 public meeting held at the Heron Lake Community Center. About 60 people were in attendance for the meeting, which began at 7:00 p.m., and heard reports from a board member of HLBE as well as members of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Construction on HLBE is slated to begin in March, and last approximately 14 months. Once completed, the plant will produce 55 million gallons of ethanol annually, from 18 million bushels of corn, and the by-product will be 160,000 tons of dried distillers grains (DDGS), a high-protein animal feed, which will also be sold.

HLBE will employ at least 39 people, will burn coal as the fuel source, and start-up costs of the plant are $97 million. The site of the plant will be on the south side of Highway 60, one mile northeast of Heron Lake. HLBE board member Milton McKeown was the initial speaker, and assured the audience that the plant will take extensive measures to reduce dioxin and mercury emissions, pollutants associated with coal use. The water source will not be city water, but two industrial wells dug outside of town. We will not discharge any process-related water,_ McKeown stressed. The industrial storm water, however, will flow into a storm water pond, and if necessary, drain into Heron Lake Outlet. HLBE will be responsible to construct an outlet drain that meets environmental standards.

Transportation for the plant will be along Highway 60, County Highway 24, and the Union Pacific rail lines. The coal will travel by rail as far as Williams, Iowa, and then travel by truck to HLBE. The ethanol and DDGS will be shipped out on trains, and except for local corn deliveries, trains could also bring in the corn. Speaking of road upgrades, McKeown said that the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) knows about the ethanol plant, and that HLBE will cooperate with MnDOT to complete necessary upgrades.

McKeown also addressed the issue of disposing fly ash, the waste product of burning coal. One to two tons of fly ash will be generated each hour the plant is in operation, and it will be loaded on trucks and taken to a landfill designated to handle it if no opportunity to recycle the ash is found.

Although the plant will produce some constant noise pollution, since a hammermill to crush the corn and a cooling tower will always be in use. To reduce noise generated by truck traffic, the bulk of the traffic will occur during daytime hours and the truck drivers will be instructed not to use Jake brakes for deceleration. The odor produced by the plant will be kept as low as possible with emission stacks over 100 feet high. Those account for greater dispersion of gases and particles, McKeown noted.

Jim Sullivan, environmental review project manager for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was the next to speak, and talked about the environmental review process. This will aid in understanding the environmental effects of the plant, he stated, and the information is available to government officials and citizens alike. An environmental assessment worksheet (EAW) has already been completed, and now the public along with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency can decide if a more detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) should be done. Such a measure could take several months to complete and delay the start of the plant.

We are not a regulatory branch of the government, Sullivan said, but added, no permits, approvals, or construction can begin until the review is completed should the Citizen's Advisory Board request an EIS. Some of the points an EIS would cover include the type, extent, and reversibility of environmental effects, environmental quality around the project, and the extent to which the environmental effects are subject to mitigation by a regulatory body.

Citizens have one month to review and comment on the EAW, and all comments need to be submitted to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in writing, whether by letter, email, or fax, and must be received by the agency by 4:30 p.m. on March 4. Paper was handed out at the meeting last Thursday for those who wanted to submit remarks right away.

Mike Mondloch, the air quality engineer for the facility, said that burning coal produces pollutants that are considered hazardous, such as metals and dioxins, but that the emissions of the plant will be within government parameters. The coal chosen for the plant is Powder River Coal, mined from the North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Campbell County, Wyoming, and is very low in mercury and sulfur. This is very good news, he said. The state-of-the-art fluidized bed, which will burn the coal, also helps lower pollution. The bed will help the plant have a very good dioxin emission characteristic, Mondloch said.

Mondloch said HLBE accepted a voluntary mercury emission limit, and the plant will put out less than 5.8 pounds per year. Later during the meeting, it was announced that after completing some tests and using limestone, HLBE would produce only four pounds of mercury a year. While mercury is not dangerous in the air, it becomes a problem when it rains into rivers and lakes and is absorbed by fish. Interestingly, only 10% of mercury in Minnesota water is generated in Minnesota, Mondloch said. 90% is carried in from other states by air currents.

Deb Schumann with water permitting took the podium next, and discussed the wastewater permit. (We'll have) technological removal of pollutants, she commented. It should be a relatively clean discharge, she said of the water routed to Heron Lake Outlet. Phosphorus and chloride monitoring will be based on state water quality standards, she mentioned. Phosphorus is a concern throughout the state of Minnesota, she added, but additives help control it.

Of the storm water, Schumann said, There will be no uncontrolled runoff. The storm water pond, however, may need to be drawn down when precipitation levels are high so it doesn't overflow. Schumann also wants to impose stringent standards, and plans to run tests once a week rather than once a month. It was also mentioned that all the coal handling would be done indoors, which will cut down on pollution.

After the presenters finished speaking, a question and answer session was held. Several citizens expressed concerns about pollution from the coal, even if it's a cleaner variety. Mercury is bad, said one woman, no matter how low the amount. Mondloch responded that everyone agrees that mercury levels should be kept to a minimum. We can't tell plants what to do, but we can enforce that they are clean, he said.

Another woman pointed to the 1972 passage of the Clean Water Act, and said that even today, thirty years later, the extent of mercury pollution still isn't known. Yet another woman expressed her interest in pursuing an EIS.

Others brought to light that a couple of smaller plants being built in Iowa will also burn coal, and since they will be finished before HLBE, pollution tests could be run on them. One man asked if other states have stricter standards for mercury emissions, and it was answered that the standards are so varied from state to state that it's hard to compare them.

Bill Roddy of ICM, the company providing design and engineering services, called the coal the cleanest coal we could find. It's in big demand with utility companies & you pay a premium for it.

It was asked how long the Powder Rive Basin coal would last, and the answer was 200 years. Another asked about other fuel sources, and the answer was that even corn has emissions other than mercury that are problematic. Domestic natural gas supplies are also becoming lower could soon be imported. Natural gas is expensive, so HLBE decided not to pursue that option. However, it was mentioned that the fluidized bed for the plant is capable of burning products other than coal.

The Minnesota Pollution Agency's EAW is available at the Heron Lake Public Library, or can be viewed online at pca.state.mn.us. All comments regarding the ethanol plant must be addressed to Jim Sullivan at MCPA, 520 Lafayette Road N., St. Paul, Minnesota, 55155-4194; or by fax to (651) 297-2343. Sullivan must also receive comments no later than 4:30 p.m. on March 4.