Recent environmental concerns have fueled (no pun intended) an explosion in the ethanol industry in Iowa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service has forecasted the largest corn crop in history: 13.1 billion acres.

According to Renewable Fuel Association’s Web site, there are currently 134 biorefineries producing nearly 7.3 billion gallons per year with an additional 66 refineries under construction and 10 more refineries adding additional capacity for a grand total of close to 13.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel each year.

All of this would seem to add up to a giant opportunity for Iowa. Indeed, Iowa has 28 ethanol refineries and seems poised to have an integral role in America’s renewable energy future. Yet the issue is more complex than one might first imagine. The massive increase in corn production has led to decreases in other crops, including two that should be a concern of college students everywhere – barley and hops.

These two essential ingredients for brewing beer are in record-setting short supply, with prices double or quadruple what they were just a year or two ago. This shortage is unlikely to affect the giant breweries of Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, which have futures contracts with locked-in prices for the barely and hops. However, micro and homebrews, lacking the same protective barriers, are likely to suffer.

Another important effect of increased production is what it will do to the environment. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources published an eight-page analysis of the issues surrounding the ethanol boom in Iowa detailing the potential consequences to the soil, air and ground water. Sustained levels of increased corn production will require more fertilizer per acre than soybeans and will also result in more soil erosion. This problem is aggravated by the fact land in the Conservation Reserve Program will be returned to crop production as well. CRP land is generally steeper, more susceptible to erosion and less productive than most farmland, requiring additional fertilization and maintenance.

The increased soil erosion will also affect our waterways. The DNR uses Lake Rathburn as an example, stating converting only 29 percent of the local CRP acreage back to farmland will increase sediment delivery into the lake by 6,200 dump truck loads – nearly 62,000 tons of soil. The increased phosphorus from the fertilizer will also encourage algae growth in the lake, lowering its biotic potential for fish and waterfowl. In addition, there will also be an increased level of nitrates in the surrounding towns’ water supply.

While on the topic of water, it takes roughly four gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. With an estimated 5 billion gallons of ethanol able to be produced in Iowa, more than 20 billion gallons of water will be needed.

As for air quality, Iowa currently has no violations of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard, but two ethanol plants have been referred to the attorney general’s office in past few months for numerous violations of air- and water-purity laws. The Lincolnway Energy ethanol plant in Iowa has amassed enough fines that state lawyers are considering referring it to the attorney general’s office so that fines greater than $10,000 can be assessed. The plant has been found in tests to have particulate emissions 10 times the legal limit and to be approaching the legal limit for volatile organic compounds that can cause liver, kidney and nervous system damage.

The Lincolnway Energy plant has also been cited for contaminated wastewater and recently had a wastewater spill. Lincolnway Energy is the second Iowa ethanol plant to have been cited. The Siouxland Energy and Livestock Cooperative of Sioux City was accused of undergoing construction without a permit in addition to a variety of pollution violations.

As we Iowans stand on the cusp of a new – hopefully greener – future, we cannot get caught up in the wave of, to quote Alan Greenspan, irrational exuberance.

The biofuels industry has great potential both to invigorate the Iowan economy and to help overcome our oil addiction. But we must look before we leap and be certain that in our rush to save the planet we are not doing more harm than good.

– Quincy Miller is a senior in English from Altoona.