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If state agencies and local governments ultimately endorse the proposal, the Winona-area investors in MinnErgy plan to spend more than $100 million to build a plant that would produce 55 million gallons of ethanol a year in Eyota. But if environmental and citizens’ groups keep pressing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to do a more-extensive environmental study of the MinnErgy proposal, it could raise the stakes in a battle that’s already drawn statewide scrutiny.
MPCA officials announced Friday they won’t recommend the proposal undergo an Environmental Impact State-ment, as was requested by officials in Eyota and Olmsted County, a local citizens’ group and environmental groups such as the Minnesota Trout Association. The MPCA Citi-zens Advisory Board makes the final decision on whether to require an EIS, and is slated to hear arguments on the issue Tuesday.
If the citizens’ board — whose members are appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty — follows the MPCA’s lead and says an EIS isn’t needed, the trout association and Olmsted County Concerned Citizens will sue the agency to force it to order the study, said Jeff Broberg, a spokesman for the trout association.
Jan Blevins is a spokeswoman for the concerned citizens’ group, which has said the plant could pollute Eyota’s air and groundwater. Blevins said her group has spent two years preparing to halt or slow construction of the ethanol plant and isn’t afraid to confront MPCA officials in court to do so.
“We’re gearing up, and we have no intentions of letting up,” Blevins said. “We are determined that this is the wrong thing for our small town.”
Environmental groups have said the plant would deplete and pollute the most pristine groundwater source in southeast Minnesota. It could draw 415 million gallons of water a year from the Jordan aquifer. Others say the plant would encourage the type of row-crop corn planting that they consider harmful to southeast Minnesota’s sensitive landscape.
But supporters say the ethanol plant would bring
35 new jobs to Eyota and improve the market for local corn growers. MinnErgy president Ron Scherbring called Friday’s MPCA recommendation “very positive” but said it’s just one step toward construction of the plant, which could start as early as next year. Even if the MPCA citizens’ board says an EIS isn’t necessary, MinnErgy still must obtain air, storage-tank and wastewater-discharge permits for the plant. The MPCA also has completed an Environ-mental Assessment Worksheet on the proposal and received more than 180 comment letters on it.
“(The approval process) is long and very expensive, but it’s moving forward,” Scherbring said.
Though the proposed site of the plant is just nine miles from Rochester, Minn., many MinnErgy investors are from Winona, Minn., as are several of its most-vocal opponents. Scherbring, of Minnesota City, Minn., and Dan Arnold of Winona head the investor group, while Broberg — a Winona County planning commissioner — has led protests against the proposal. Winona County Board candidate Rudie Spitzer and Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, also have lobbied for an EIS on the plant. The Winona Area Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the proposal as it stands.
The implications of ordering an EIS for an ethanol plant are huge: When the MPCA ordered one earlier this year for a proposed ethanol plant near Erskine, Minn., the company that proposed the plant, Agassiz Energy, withdrew its application.
Tschumper earlier this year proposed making an EIS a prerequisite for approval of all future ethanol plants in Minnesota. Broberg said the MPCA’s reluctance to order one for the Eyota facility, coupled with Pawlenty’s enthusiastic support for the ethanol industry, raises questions about the agency’s motives.
“They view their job as getting ethanol plants approved,” Broberg said “I view their job as protecting our resources. Those aren’t necessarily the same job.”
