AltEn, an ethanol plant, is photographed on February 19, 2021, in Mead, Nebraska. (Elsie Stormberg/Wahoo Newspaper)
Article and photo by Elsie Stormberg/Wahoo Newspaper
Published January 22, 2021
MEAD – Mead’s Jody Weible has an allergy to mold. In the summer of 2018, she remembers excessively coughing and going to the doctor to learn the cause of it. The doctor gave her medicine and sent her home. When symptoms persisted and her doctor couldn’t figure it out, Weible went to a specialist.
After a few tests, the specialist told her she had an allergy to mold. Weible said she quickly connected the dots to something that had been going on in the community she lived in.
That same summer, AltEn, an ethanol plant located near Mead, had started spreading waste from old, insecticide-ridden seed corn in the fields around where Weible lived as a soil conditioner. The plant also accumulated large piles of the pesticide-treated donated seeds because they advertised as a “recycling” location for agricultural companies, according to an article from and international publication called “The Guardian” by Carey Gillam.
In Gillam’s article, she explains that the seed corn AltEn was using was “coated with fungicides and insecticides, including those known as neonicotinoids, or ‘neonics,’ in its production process.”
When these “thousands of pounds of a smelly, lime-green mash of fermented grains” began to mold, Weible started to have an allergic reaction.
Weible was not the only one to experience a reaction. She said her neighbor’s daughter had puss leaking out of her eyes and that the Mead Public Schools superintendent told her there are days students can’t go out for recess and can’t have the windows open because of the odor.
Because there was so much excess waste, piles started to form as well on the AltEn property, especially so after the Nebraska Department of Agriculture tested the waste and informed AltEn they were no longer able to use it as ground conditioner, Weible said.
After Gillam’s article was published on January 10, 2021, it was shared on Facebook pages and was the talk of the town. On Jan. 12, Weible and Mead Mayor Bill Thorson attended the Saunders County Board of Supervisors meeting to ask the board for help in pushing the process along because it is at a standpoint.
“They don’t do anything to be a good neighbor,” Thorson said.
Weible explained to the board that she has contacted the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations to alert them of what AltEn was doing and has received little help.
AltEn is one of two companies in the United States, the other being in Kansas, that uses this kind of seed corn to produce ethanol, which means that there is very little regulation, Weible said.
There is also a possibility that the piles of waste could contaminate the ground table in Mead and end up polluting the Saunders County water systems in the lake communities north of Ashland. Weible said in her search for support she also reached out to the Lower Platte North Natural Resources District.
She was told that there was nothing they could do and she said the person she spoke with “laughed in her face.”
LPNNRD General Manager Eric Gottschalk said that he can’t imagine anyone in the district doing that. He also confirmed that there is not much the district can do until the water table is actually contaminated.
“I hate the term ‘hands are tied’ or anything like that, but it›s not within our authority,” Gottschalk said.
He said that because there has not been any contamination yet, the NRD is unable to do anything according to a Nebraska state statute. If it is a point source contaminant, or potential contaminant, it is a state issue.
“Our concern is always for the quality and quantity of our groundwater,” Gottschalk said. “The state statute does not give us any authority over point source contamination.”
After Weible and Thorson made their case, the county board responded with support.
“We’ll do whatever we can to help,” District 1 Supervisor Dave Lutton said.
Weible said she hopes the county board will be able to help resolve the situation before her biggest fear happens.
“I am totally hoping they can find a way to shut them down,” Weible said. “My biggest fear is they will go bankrupt and walk away and leave that giant mess and cannot afford to clean that up.”
This article can also be found on the Wahoo Newspaper's website here.