Mead NE-Ethanol plant temporarily forced to shut down -' Smells like something dead, rotten, acidic"
MEAD, Neb. (WOWT) - An ethanol plant in Mead was ordered last Thursday to immediately stop the discharge of wastewater from the plant, amid environmental concerns. Less than a week later, the plant shut down completely, per state orders.
The owner of the facility, AltEn, LLC “Is likely to cause and may have already caused pollution to the air, waters, and land of the state”, according to the order from the Department of Environment and Energy.
One of the biggest concerns at the plant is the distiller’s grains from corn seed fermentation which have insecticides.
*6 News first broke the story almost a year to the day — on Feb 7, 2020.
(See Link Below)
The pesticide levels found in the lagoon wastewater testing from April 8, 2019, and Nov. 12, 2019, far exceeded the registered application rates for the EPA, according to the order.
The plant was notified last October that they were not in compliance and a site visit on Feb. 1, 2021, found that wastewater lagoon levels were beyond their limits, and liners in the wastewater lagoons were damaged.
It’s a small win for Jody Weible, who has been fighting for an investigation at the plant for years.
“It’s a victory but I’m afraid to get my hopes up because I’ve dealt with them for so many years. So I think they’ll come up with a new angle. That’s my fear,” she said.
Weible lives about a mile from the plant and says it smells like she lives next door, describing the odor from the seed corn as “a cross between something dead,
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*1st Article from Feb 2020
https://www.wowt.com/content/news/Ethanol-byproduct-storage-raises-a-stink-around-small-community-567681222.html
Ethanol byproduct storage raises a stink around small community
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An Unchecked Environmental Cycle of Toxic Pesticides.
A Must Read 🤬 😕
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