Citizens for a Quality Environment
Working toward a balance between a healthy environment and responsible development.

Our Mission:

Citizens for a Quality Environment is an organization consisting of individuals working together toward preserving, reclaiming, and protecting a quality environment in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency's Mission "to protect human health and the environment."

Citizens for a Quality Environment come together to share concerns, target issues important to our group and our communities, gather information, and work toward issue resolutions."

Green Plants, Fossil Fuels, and Now Biofuels
 by
Pimentel & Patzek
from The American Institute of Biological Sciences website
(Click to website)

►More about the Economics
of ethanol production & use
(Click)

Asphalt fumes possibly linked to increased rates of depression
suicide!
Click to  see information
  
Click for info about our experience with Warrior Roofing asphalt fumes

C4aQE Director appointed to  DEP Citizens Advisory Council.   Click to read on Rep. Rob Kauffman's website

Help protect
Franklin County through
Smart Growth
(Click)

Greene Township Comprehensive Plan Info
(Click)

Info on LIDA & the land sale to Penn-Mar Ethanol (Click)

Info about Penn-Mar Ethanol's  appeal to PA Commonwealth Court
(Click)

Click for
Video of
Dec. 13, 2005 Greene Township Meeting - Penn-Mar Development Plan Denied (Large .mwv file)

"Smart growth recognizes connections between development and quality of life."
Principles of "Smart Growth"

Info about Greene Township's Complaint against
Penn-Mar
(Click)

CAFE Standards define MPG numbers
Click to see how

Links to other community ethanol plant opposition websites

Ethanol Plant Has Trouble Putting Down Roots
by
Brian Roche, WGAL TV, 6.22.06
(Click to read)

 "Ethanol, a costly snake oil & danger to America..."
by
 Ray Wallace
Click to Read

Do ethanol distilleries send malodors
into
 communities and have there been lawsuits?
(Click)

 Remember Hugh and Barb's Video (Click)

   DANGERS associated with ethanol distilleries and the storage of volatile materials & chemicals
(Click)

Pictures of Franklin County Prison now under construction
(Click) 

We see our t-shirts everywhere!
Click to see pictures!
Some different pictures in a Slideshow
(Click) 

 Pictures of CASD land!!

Questions about Penn-Mar Ethanol's proposed
24 /7 /365 distillery
(Click)

Amounts
of air pollutants Penn-Mar Ethanol Distillery would generated (Click)

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Online Complaint Form
(Click)

Info about Penn-Mar Ethanol's Registered Lobbyist
(Click)

If you are being exposed to (smelling) the Warrior Roofing tar malodor from their tar fumes (Warrior is on land directly next to
Penn-Mar's proposed site)
click here.

Get Bumper Stickers by clicking on the one below!


Car Pool and other TIPS TO SAVE ON GASOLINE
(Click)

Ethanol Plant Rally (08/05)
Video from WHP CBS 21 News
(Click)
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Sign our Petition in Opposition to the Ethanol Distillery
Over 1,700 Signatures and Growing
(Click to Print, Sign & Send)
_________

C4AQE Website's
Table of Contents
(Patience please, it is a work in progress)
_________

Video of the Greene Township Planning Commission Meeting 
(Click)

Letters to the Editor and Editorials

Contribute
to c4aQe

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NO Ethanol Plant Billboard 

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Representatives

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Man fired for getting gassed on spilled ethanol at work
(Click to read)

"A new report by researchers of an Ames company shows that coal-powered ethanol plants release as much as 92 percent more carbon dioxide than those powered by natural gas.
 
Carbon dioxide is the gas that scientists most frequently blame for global warming....
 
...Frontline's analysis of a plant that would produce 50 million gallons of ethanol a year show a coal-powered facility would release as much as 207,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year while a natural gas-powered plant would emit 108,000 tons...."   Report: Coal-power ethanol plant emissions 92% higher than with gas A natural gas-powered Des Moines facility would release 92 percent less carbon dioxide, firm says. by Jason Clayworth, Register staff writer, The Des Moines Register, November 25, 2006 (Click to read)

"...One energy analyst, Robert McIlvaine, president of the Illinois-based research group McIlvaine Company, predicts that "100 percent" of new ethanol plants built in the U.S. over the next few years will be coal-fired, "largely because of the exorbitant cost of natural gas right now, and the comparatively predictable future supply of homegrown coal."...
 
...In March, the EPA -- reportedly at the behest of at least one corn-state politician -- proposed changing a rule in order to let ethanol-fuel plants more than double their air emissions, from 100 tons per year of any pollutant regulated under the Clean Air Act to 250 tons per year.
 
"This proposal is clearly designed to usher in this wave of new coal-fired plants -- loosening the rules so that the facilities can be bigger, dirtier, and cheaper," says Greene's colleague John Walke, director of NRDC's clean-air program...."  Warts and Ethanol: A new reliance on coal could sap green cred from the ethanol industry by Amanda Griscom Little, Grist.com, May 26, 2006 (Click to read) 

"...Our federal farm bill subsidizes the growing of corn - about $10 billion this past year, according to the Environmental Working Group. That policy leads to overproduction of this thirsty crop, which drains the Great Plains' precious Ogallala Aquifer and requires massive amounts of nitrate fertilizer that, inevitably, seep into that same groundwater....
 
...The latest: Some, perhaps a majority, of our newest ethanol plants are making the switch from natural gas to coal to make the fuel. Because coal is cheaper, a new Iowa ethanol plant has chosen that route. Similar plants are planned for North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota and perhaps Kansas....

...Producing one gallon of corn ethanol needs 1,700 gallons of water to irrigate the corn and process the fuel..."  
Corn ethanol isn't all it's cracked up to be by Pete Letheby, Salt Lake Tribune, May 19, 2006 (Click to read) 

"...If the biofuels industry is going to depend on coal, and these conversion plants release their CO2 to the air, it could undo the global warming benefits of using ethanol," says David Hawkins, climate director for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington.
 
The reason for the shift is purely economic. Natural gas has long been the ethanol industry's fuel of choice. But with natural gas prices soaring, talk of coal power for new ethanol plants and retrofitting existing refineries for coal is growing, observers say...." Carbon cloud over a green fuel, An Iowa corn refinery, open since December, uses 300 tons of coal a day to make ethanol. by Mark Clayton, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor, March 2006 (Click to read)

►An old adage states: Development, residential or commercial, is all about location! location! location!  It's also water, water, water - or lack of it !!!
"...Two-thirds of Pennsylvania's counties are 50 percent or more below their normal precipitation levels, including Franklin, Fulton, Adams and Cumberland...."
 Our view: Conservation of water is needed now from The Public Opinion, April 13, 2006
An ethanol distillery such as the one planned by Penn-Mar Ethanol would use approximately 800,000 gallons of fresh water per day--enough water to supply 12,903 people's usage every day.
►  DEP Issues Drought Watch for Entire State (Click to go to read the entire article)
 
"...Nowhere is the growing clash between economic development and water conservation more evident than in the push to build ethanol plants that typically guzzle 3½ to 6 gallons of water for every gallon of fuel produced. Minnesota's 15 ethanol plants together consume about 2 billion gallons of water per year, and plants in Winthrop, Windom, Marshall and Granite Falls are straining available water resources...." from Water supply can't meet thirst for new industry by Greg Gordon, Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, December 27, 2005

"...About 2 billion gallons of water a year are consumed by Minnesota’s 15 ethanol plants.  
 
One source of help should come from a $400 million public works project in South Dakota – the Lewis & Clark Rural Water System – that eventually will pipe 3.78 million gallons of Missouri River water daily to southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa..."  ArgusLeader.com, The Associated Press, December 27, 2005  (Click to read)
  
More info on water in Franklin County (Click) 

► Thermodynamics of the Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Cycle, Tad W. Patzek, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, February 2006.   
"More fossil energy  is used to produce ethanol from corn than the ethanol’s energy value.  Growing corn for fuel depletes and can eventually destroy soil value.  Production of ethanol from plants is unsustainable.  Only large government subsidies, courtesy of the taxpayers, support ethanol...." (Click to read) 
Click for more on the Economics of Fuel Ethanol Production 
   
Ethanol production using corn grain required 29% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced."  Ethanol production Using Corn, Switchgrass, and Wood; Biodiesel Production Using Soybeans and Sunflower by David Pimentel and Tad W. Patzek 2005 (Click)  
Ethanol from corn: Just how sustainable is it? Click for a pdf file of the PowerPoint Presentation by Tadeusz W. Patzek, Civil and Environmental Engineering, U.C., Berkley
► Dr. Tad Patzek (Professor, University of California, Berkeley) Information - Click here
► Dr. David Pimentel (Professor, Cornell University) Information - Click Here)
 
More on the Economics of ethanol production (Click)

"Skeptical about protests from chronic complainers that the odor of an ethanol plant was intolerable, Larry Hardison pulled out his kayak.
He paddled upriver of Tate & Lyle, then downriver. The odor started out tolerable, got worse, then overwhelmed him. He ended his excursion dry heaving over the side of his boat.
Hardison, it is worth noting, is not an environmental wacko. He is chairman of an air quality task force created by Loudon County, Tennessee's three elected governmental bodies…."   Is plant worth the stink? Economics of proposed ethanol facility good for city, but odor a negative by Eric Fleischauer, DAILY Business Writer, The Decatur Daily News, August 13, 2006 (Click to read)

Map showing the areas that would require immediate evacuation and stay indoors actions should an accident, explosion, or spill occur on the Penn-Mar Ethanol distillery site: 
All map files are very large (high-speed connections will work best) and may take some time to form.
- Map with 2.5 miles (Immediate Evacuation) and 5 miles (Stay Indoors) radiuses (Click to view in pdf)
- Map of the immediate area around the Penn-Mar proposed distillery site marked.   
(Click to view in pdf)   
- Map of Franklin County with 2.5 miles and 5 miles areas.  This is a very large file for high-speed connections only and it will still take some time to view.  (Click here for map)
- Also see chemicals and hazardous materials that would be stored at the site. (Click)

Question #21 Homeland Security Issues  Is it safe to build an ethanol distillery close to an Army ammunition operations area, the Army's military vehicle mission vital to the Iraq War (up-armoring Humvees), Patriot Missile radar testing area, next to the Army's helipad, and to share the same railroad tracks?   

! CLICK here to read articles about some of the fires, spills, and explosions that have occurred at ethanol distilleries or when the materials and product were being transported.

According to the Integrated Contingency Plans for Penn-Mar Ethanol (March 31, 2005) which is part of Penn-Mar's Plan Approval Application to PADEP for a "60 Million Gallons Per Year Fuel Ethanol Production Facility," the following would be stored on-site:

... five 13,333 cubic foot Carbon Dioxide (CO2) storage tanks
        8,000 lbs Anhydrous ammonia would be at the distillery;
      18,000 gallons of Aqueous ammonia would be in an aboveground storage tank;
    165,000 gallons 95% ethanol - aboveground storage tank;
    165,000 gallons 100% ethanol - aboveground storage tank;
1.5 million gallons Fuel Ethanol - 2 aboveground storage tanks (AST);
     75,000 gallons of Gasoline for denaturing in aboveground storage tank (AST);
       7,000 gallons Sulfuric Acid - aboveground storage tank;
       5,700 gallons Sulfamic Acid - aboveground storage tank;
       8,000 gallons Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda) - aboveground storage tank;
      8,400 gallons Glucose Amylase - aboveground storage tank;
      8,400 gallons Alpha Amylase - aboveground storage tank;
4 Fermentation tanks:
   745,000 gallons each
1,000,000 gallons - Beer well
Click to see Chemical Storage Key in PDF
 

! Hugh and Barb Baker, members of c4aQe, traveled to Lena, Illinois and Monroe, Wisconsin to see, hear, and smell real ethanol distilleries operating in real time and on a Saturday night.  They observed and filmed Adkins Energy, LLC's ethanol distillery/refinery and Badger State, LLC's ethanol distillery/refinery in March 2005.
 
Some of Hugh and Barb's video!
These are very large files for high-speed internet connections only.
Daytime at Adkins Energy, Lena, IL and Badger State Ethanol in Monroe, WI
Click here! 
Denny from the KAO Campground approx. 1/2 mile from Adkins Energy ethanol plant.
Click Here!
Night at Adkins Energy, Lena, IL and Badger State Ethanol in Monroe, WI
Click here!
Hugh's Letter to the Editor of the Public Opinion, May 7, 2005 Click Here! 
Barb's Letter to the Editor of the Public Opinion March 29, 2005 Click Here!
-- Adkins Energy, Lena Illinois  - some Odor Complaints 2005 Click Here
--Testimony of Monroe, WI resident re: Badger State Ethanol plant and a picture of the plant. 
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Pictures of Greene Township Meetings
(Click)

Letterkenny
Army Depot not on the BRAC '05 List! (click)
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Environmental Cleanup Wins Letterkenny Army Depot National Recognition
Washington, D.C. (January 22, 2003)

Tips to
 Save gas
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