The Corn Plus ethanol plant in Winnebego, Minnesota was served a warrant by the Faribault Sheriff’s Department, and the Winnebego police to allow MPCA investigators gather water samples and other information related to numerous citizen complaints about milky discharges of wastewater into a drainage ditch and foul odors coming from the plant.

Corn Plus is a co-op owned by over 750 farmers. The plant produces 44 million gallons of ethanol per year

The Faribault County Register reports:

State officials believe Corn Plus has “periodically and intentionally” discharged its wastewater into the county ditch.

“It appears that the company makes such illegal discharges at least in part to avoid the cost of discharging wastewater to the City’s wastewater treatment plant,” was another reason supporting issuance of a warrant.

Lee Ganske of the MPCA office in Mankato says because the case has moved into an “investigative phase,” he is unable to comment.

“The case has taken a turn and gone in a different direction,” says Ganske in explaining why he can’t provide details.

Two weeks ago, Ganske confirmed his office was trying to determine where grayish, murkish-colored water discharged into a county ditch along 375th Avenue in Delavan Township was coming from.

He says the polluted water was making its way to Rice Lake, located on a state wildlife management area.

Tip of the hat to Blue Stem Prairie.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 6:49 am and is filed under Ethanol, Pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.