Minutes 08/14/2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

AUQust 14. 2007 WHEREAS, ethanol refineries are almost always located in isolated rural areas, far distant from any major population centers, and it is unprecedented to locate an ethanol refinery in an urban location that is densely populated; and WHEREAS, it is a matter of public record that ethanol refineries all have, to varying degrees, a complex mixture of harmful air emissions, including: · Known carcinogens such as acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, benzene, and numerous volatile organic compounds ("VOCs"); · Objectionable odors from various VOCs; · Fine particulate matter that ultimately descends to the ground, coating exposed surfaces and that will also contribute to existing air quality problems in the Hampton Roads area; · Precursors to smog and haze such as VOCs and nitrogen oxide; and · Large amounts of carbon dioxide, a "greenhouse gas" that contributes to global warming; and WHEREAS, depending on a number of operational and meteorological factors, these harmful air emissions are on occasion present at objectionable levels at distances up to several miles; and WHEREAS, existing air quality environmental regulatory practices for ethanol refineries often require measurement of only certain specified emissions, and only in limited ways, and they are still being revised and developed, and they fail to measure or identify all expected ethanol refinery emissions, and they fail to regulate odor emissions specifically; and for such reasons present regulatory practices cannot be relied upon to completely assess and protect air quality, community quality, and public health in densely populated areas and, as a result, any air emission control permit that may be issued by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for this refinery cannot be expected at this time to fully protect against all adverse adjacent community impacts and public health concerns, and in particular concerns about odors and potentially toxic emissions; and WHEREAS, Ethanol refineries also generate significant noise that has been likened to the sound of a jet engine or of a train that never arrives; and WHEREAS, there are numerous credible reports of isolated individual citizens in rural areas living close to ethanol refineries whose quality of life has been destroyed and whose peace, health, and well-being are impaired by the effects of living close to an ethanol refinery, such as odor, noise, particulate matter, and steam plumes that descend to the ground like a thick fog, bringing with them intense, nauseating odors; with those citizens experiencing as a result headaches, nausea, sinus problems, aggravation of asthma and other respiratory problems, inability to engage in normal outdoor family activities, and sleeplessness; and WHEREAS, because the ethanol industry is so new, and because there is virtually no historical experience of large numbers of citizens living for an extended period of time in close proximity to any ethanol refinery, no public health study has ever been done to assess the long-term health consequences of being exposed to this combination of air emissions and noise from ethanol refineries; and WHEREAS, there is a reasonable basis to believe that there may be significant adverse public health consequences resulting from such long-term exposure; and WHEREAS, there are respected industry experts and ordinary citizens with practical experience with ethanol refineries who recommend not building any ethanol refinery within several miles of any populated area; and