Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Contacts: Ralph Pribble, 651-296-7792 St. Paul, Minn. -- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has completed an Environmental Assessment Worksheet for a proposed ethanol plant near Glenville, in Freeborn County, Minn. The public comment period for the EAW ends Dec. 19, 2007. The South Dakota-based POET Energy Company is proposing to build a corn ethanol production facility called POET Biorefining-Glenville West, with the capacity to produce 69 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol annually, and using natural gas for steam generation. As a by-product, the facility would also produce 200,000 tons of dried distillers grains a year, and 30,000 tons of wet distillers grains. The plant would use a maximum of 650 gallons of water per minute from two groundwater sources. The facility would not discharge wastewater. The EAW is a preliminary environmental review of how a proposed project could potentially affect the environment. The EAW also helps the MPCA determine if an Environmental Impact Statement, a more in-depth environmental review, is needed. The EAW is necessary for the MPCA to issue permits for the project. The MPCA may make changes to the permits based on input it receives during the EAW public comment period and/or on new information gathered as part of its own review of the project. Comments on the Glenville West ethanol project should be submitted in writing by Dec. 19 to Steve Sommer, MPCA, 520 Lafayette Road, St. Paul, MN 55155-4194. Copies of the EAW are available for review on the Web at www.pca.state.mn.us/news/eaw/index.html, as well as the following locations:
· MPCA Rochester office, 18 Wood Lake Drive SE
· MPCA St. Paul office, 520 Lafayette Road North
To request a copy of the EAW, contact Steve Sommer at the MPCA, 651-282-5851 or steve.sommer@pca.state.mn.us. Additional information on the environmental review process is available on the Web at www.pca.state.mn.us/news/eaw/index.html.