MPCA to decide on Eyota environmental study

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens' Board will decide today whether the agency has done enough study on an ethanol plant proposed for Eyota.

The plant would be built on the western edge of Eyota, near Rochester. It would create about 35 jobs and produce 55 million gallons of ethanol a year, boosting incomes for nearby corn farmers.

Critics say the porous geology of the region makes it too easy for polluted surface water to drain into ground water supplies.

The MPCA conducted a preliminary environmental study called a worksheet, and staffers say nothing in that process called for a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement or EIS.

But that's what some local people and groups are asking for.

The MPCA has only required an EIS for an ethanol plant once before -- and in that case, the developers dropped the idea.

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