[Vision2020] ethanol and water

[Dan Carscallen]

Another one of those environmental paradoxes, like the one Phil Cook
posted a while back about bicycling:
 
<http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/~ulrich/documents/ulrich-cycling-enviro-j
ul06.pdf>
http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/~ulrich/documents/ulrich-cycling-enviro-ju
l06.pdf
 
and like the one I heard on the Radio Men the other day (yes, C. Foster
Kane's "Thee News" is *my* news source), which they probably gleaned
from this article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2195538.ece
 
you just can't win.
 
DC

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Mark Solomon
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 6:03 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] ethanol and water


Interesting numbers re how much water does it take to produce ethanol.
Including water for irrigating the corn crop feed-stock: 1700 gallons of
water for each gallon of ethanol produced.


Mark



How much water does it take to produce ethanol?

By Nate Jenkins of the Associated Press
August 13, 2007

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - The growing thirst for ethanol takes a lot of water
to quench, but less than many people believe and not enough to cause
serious problems, experts told farmers.

Last year in Nebraska, the nation's third-leading ethanol producer, it
took 2 billion gallons of water at 15 ethanol plants to churn out 676
million gallons of the alternative fuel, Derrel Martin, an irrigation
and water resources engineer said Thursday.

But roughly 900 billion gallons of rain water falls annually in Lincoln
County, Martin said, addressing the public perception that ethanol
production takes an inordinate amount of water.

"These plants are not consuming a huge amount of water," he said.

Martin spoke during an agriculture conference in North Platte that
focused on water. Nebraska is aggressively pushing development of
ethanol plants and is poised to become the second-leading producer in
the country later this year. At the same time, it is struggling to meet
water demands of its farmers and those in neighboring states who rely on
water that passes through Nebraska.

A longtime analyst of ethanol production disagreed with Martin and
questioned his figures, saying it takes an average of about 15 gallons
of water to produce a gallon of ethanol - much higher than the roughly
three gallons of water per gallon of ethanol Martin cited.

Groundwater tables in some states, including Missouri, have been drawn
down to dangerously low levels near some ethanol plants, said David
Pimentel, an ecology and agriculture professor at Cornell University.

The figures cited by both Martin and Pimentel include only a plant's
production of ethanol, not the water it takes to grow corn. After adding
that, about 1,700 gallons are needed to produce every gallon of ethanol,
Pimentel said.

The entire water-use picture, coupled with the fuel it takes to produce
ethanol, makes long-term, mass production of ethanol unsustainable,
Pimentel said.

"I wish it were sustainable, I'm an agriculturalist," he said. "I wish
this whole ethanol deal was a major benefit, but you've got to be a
scientist first and an agriculturalist second."

Martin said the question of whether increased corn production and the
irrigation it requires will overburden the state's water supply is an
important one that does not yet have a clear answer.

Moratoriums on new groundwater wells are already in place in some
regions, such as along the Platte River, and the Republican River basin
has caps on groundwater use.

The state faces a test over whether it will control water use in fragile
areas or succumb to the financial allure of planting more irrigated corn
to meet ethanol demands, Martin said.

Corn prices have risen with ethanol production. There are 19 percent
more acres of irrigated corn this year across the country, including
about one million more irrigated acres in Nebraska, he said.

Plans designed to curtail water use in some basins could become
"toothless tigers" in the face of such market pressures, he said.

On the Net:
Nebraska Ethanol Board: http://www.ne-ethanol.org/

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