Il Guardian riporta la notizia delle reazioni alla scoperta che una fabbrica di bioetanolo ha inquinato per anni terreni ed acque circostanti con prodotti chimici, in parte con immissioni accidentali dirette, in maggior parte distribuendo agli agricoltori locali i residui solidi per essere usati come concime biologico.

La fabbrica produce bioetanolo a partire da cereali con un processo di fermentazione, ma nella produzione ha usato anche materiale che era stato prodotto da ditte sementiere ed era stato trattato con fitofarmaci per impedire malattie durante la germinazione, ma le ditte sementiere che rifornivano la fabbrica di bioetanolo si sono dichiarate all’oscuro dell’uso che ne veniva fatto.

For years, the people of Mead, Nebraska, have worried about the ethanol plant that moved into their small rural community a little over a decade ago. They feared the terrible smells and odd illnesses in the area might be connected to the plant and its use of pesticide-coated seed corn in its biofuel production process.

Those concerns recently turned to outrage and anger after environmental regulators were forced to acknowledge that under their oversight the AltEn LLC ethanol plant has been contaminating the area with an array of pesticides at levels much higher than what is considered safe.

The contamination has been ongoing for years, exacerbated through accidental spills and leaks of the plant’s pesticide-laden waste, which has been stored in poorly maintained lagoons and piled into hills of a putrid lime-green mash called “wet cake”. The company had also distributed the waste to area farmers for spreading across fields as “soil conditioner”.

Immagine da Wikimedia Commons