A report Mr. Steven Chu should read... without water, we have nothing.
Federal requirements to increase the production of biofuels has developed into a "drink-or-drive issue" in the Midwest as a result of biofuel production’s impact on water supplies and water quality, says an environmental engineering researcher at Missouri University of Science and Technology in the latest issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology. ...could become a costly proposition in terms of "gallons per mile" and other water quality issues. They describe the Midwest’s water needs and impacts as the "water footprint" in the cover feature for the May 1 issue of Environmental Science & Technology.
The researchers report that ethanol derived from corn grown in Nebraska, for example, would require 50 gallons of water per mile driven, when all the water needed in irrigation of crops and processing into ethanol is considered. Fuel derived from irrigated sorghum grown in that state would require even more water to produce—as much as 115 gallons per mile.
Moreover, increasing production of biofuels from row crops will likely result in more water pollution due to soil erosion and the increased use of pesticides to grow enough crops to meet federal mandates for more ethanol, the researchers say. The mandated production using the current technology has driven the use of ethanol production from corn and biodiesel from soybeans as these are the currently available technologies.
In the article, the researchers suggest that federal regulators take a closer look at how a push for bioenergy will affect water resources.
"Developing a sustainable national biofuels program requires careful consideration of logistical concerns … and of unintended environmental impacts," write Burken and his co-authors, Rosa Dominguez-Faus and Pedro J. Alvarez, Ph.D., of Rice University and Susan E. Powers of Clarkson University, Ph.D., in their article, "The Water Footprint of Biofuels: A Drink or Drive Issue?" The article is online .
Source: eponline
