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Originally Posted by dirtdigger0416  The absolute ignorance of some of my fellow citizens about how much water the ethanol plant is going to use is absolutely beyond me. Everyone keeps harping on the 330 million gallons of water that the ethanol plant is going to uses every year, of which 25 percent is going to be used again for irrigation. That is roughly a net water use for the ethanol plant of 250 million gallons. And of that 110 million gallons is actually turned into something..... |
The Ethanol Lobbyists seemed to have done a very good job of pulling the wool over your eyes. Take a look at this from USA TODAY!
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Ethanol plants' water usage raises some concerns
Posted 6/19/2006 5:59 PM ET
By Jim Paul, Associated Press
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — City officials in Champaign and Urbana took notice when they heard that an ethanol plant proposed nearby would use about two million gallons of water per day, most likely from the aquifer that also supplies both cities.
"There was concern about impacting a pretty valuable resource," said Matt Wempe, a city planner for Urbana. "It should raise red flags."
The proposal for a 100 million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant is just one of many that have popped up in the past several months across Illinois, which already has seven operating plants and is the nation's No. 2 ethanol producer after Iowa.
High oil prices and support from Washington have spurred so much interest in the plant-based gasoline additive that the Illinois Corn Growers Association now says at least 30 plants are in various stages of planning across the state. All will use a lot of water.
It would take about 300 million gallons of water for processing the product and cooling equipment to make 100 million gallons of ethanol each year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association... |
Now, using those figures from the Renewable Fuels Association, if the plant is open 300 days a year. Which accounts for 5-6 days/week of operation and shut down for a few holidays, that amounts to 1 million gallons or so per day. If they want their equipment to last any amount of time, they will have to add chemicals to their cooling water. When you add chemicals to the cooling water, there are rules to follow from the KDHA and the EPA, so irrigating with cooling water will be out of the picture.