Laserfiche WebLink
<br />. Large amounts of carbon dioxide, a "greenhouse gas" that contributes to global <br />warming; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, depending on a number of operational and meteorological factors, <br />these harmful air emissions are on occasion present at objectionable levels at distances up <br />to several miles; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, existing air quality environmental regulatory practices for ethanol <br />refineries often require measurement of only certain specified emissions, and only in <br />limited ways, and they are still being revised and developed, and they fail to measure or <br />identify all expected ethanol refinery emissions, and they fail to regulate odor emissions <br />specifically; and for such reasons present regulatory practices carmot be relied upon to <br />completely assess and protect air quality, community quality, and public health in densely <br />populated areas and, as a result, any air emission control permit that may be issued by the <br />Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for this refinery carmot be expected at this <br />time to fully protect against all adverse adjacent community impacts and public health <br />concerns, and in particular concerns about odors and potentially toxic emissions; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, Ethanol refineries also generate significant noise that has been <br />likened to the sound of a jet engine or of a train that never arrives; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, there are numerous credible reports of isolated individual citizens in <br />rural areas living close to ethanol refineries whose quality of life has been destroyed and <br />whose peace, health, and well-being are impaired by the effects of living close to an <br />ethanol refinery, such as odor, noise, particulate matter, and steam plumes that descend to <br />the ground like a thick fog, bringing with them intense, nauseating odors; with those <br />citizens experiencing as a result headaches, nausea, sinus problems, aggravation of <br />asthma and other respiratory problems, inability to engage in normal outdoor family <br />activities, and sleeplessness; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, because the ethanol industry is so new, and because there is virtually <br />no historical experience of large numbers of citizens living for an extended period of time <br />in close proximity to any ethanol refinery, no public health study has ever been done to <br />assess the long-term health consequences of being exposed to this combination of air <br />emissions and noise from ethanol refineries; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, there is a reasonable basis to believe that there may be significant <br />adverse public health consequences resulting from such long-term exposure; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, there are respected industry experts and ordinary citizens with <br />practical experience with ethanol refineries who recommend not building any ethanol <br />refinery within several miles of any populated area; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the proposed ethanol refinery would be the largest ethanol refinery <br />in the world (estimated production capacity of235 million gallons per year), <br />approximately four to five times the size of normal ethanol refineries (production <br />