From a Times article Tuesday. Just another, and another, and another reason why Biofuels are not the end all be all of answers to climate change or $4 a gallon gasoline.
The article is talking about recent spills and intentional dumping of pollutants from bio-diesel plants in the mid west, and resulting fish kills. This article is just another reason why we all need to be wary of quick solutions to environmental ills, and why the ultimate fix needs to be personal conservation and life style change.
"According to the National Biodiesel Board, a trade group, biodiesel is nontoxic, biodegradable and suitable for sensitive environments, but scientists say that position understates its potential environmental impact.
“They’re really considered nontoxic, as you would expect,” said Bruce P. Hollebone, a researcher with Environment Canada in Ottawa and one of the world’s leading experts on the environmental impact of vegetable oil and glycerin spills.
“You can eat the stuff, after all,” Mr. Hollebone said. “But as with most organic materials, oil and glycerin deplete the oxygen content of water very quickly, and that will suffocate fish and other organisms. And for birds, a vegetable oil spill is just as deadly as a crude oil spill.”
Other states have also felt the impact.
Leanne Tippett Mosby, a deputy division director of environmental quality for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, said she was warned a year ago by colleagues in other states that biodiesel producers were dumping glycerin, the main byproduct of biodiesel production, contaminated with methanol, another waste product that is classified as hazardous."
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