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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007>Another one of those environmental paradoxes, like the
one Phil Cook posted a while back about bicycling:</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007><A
href="http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/~ulrich/documents/ulrich-cycling-enviro-jul06.pdf"><U><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/~ulrich/documents/ulrich-cycling-enviro-jul06.pdf</U></FONT></A></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007>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:</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007><A
href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2195538.ece">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2195538.ece</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007>you just can't win.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=328514213-13082007>DC</DIV></SPAN></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
vision2020-bounces@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com] <B>On
Behalf Of </B>Mark Solomon<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, August 13, 2007 6:03
AM<BR><B>To:</B> vision2020@moscow.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] ethanol
and water<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Mark</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000><BR><BR>How much water does it take to produce
ethanol?<BR><BR>By Nate Jenkins of the Associated Press<BR>August 13,
2007<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>"These plants are not
consuming a huge amount of water," he said.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>The entire water-use picture, coupled
with the fuel it takes to produce ethanol, makes long-term, mass production of
ethanol unsustainable, Pimentel said.<BR><BR>"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."<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>Plans designed to curtail water use in some basins
could become "toothless tigers" in the face of such market pressures, he
said.<BR><BR>On the Net:<BR>Nebraska Ethanol Board:
http://www.ne-ethanol.org/</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>