PEKIN — After an eight-year legal battle over pollution, a major ethanol refinery has received a final consent order requiring it to pay a $75,000 civil penalty and fund a $125,000 wetland restoration project on the Illinois River floodplain.
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office filed the case against Pacific Pekin Ethanol LLC — now known as Alto Pekin LLC — in January 2018 at the request of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA requested the action after the nonprofit organizations Prairie Rivers Network and Sierra Club served a 2017 notice of intent to sue Alto Pekin over repeated permit violations.
The claims centered on thermal pollution. Plant records showed wastewater discharges that were as much as 40 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than its permit allowed. PRN and Sierra Club intervened in June 2019, adding federal Clean Water Act and public nuisance claims, with counsel including the Environmental Advocacy Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
The consent order requires Alto to pay a $75,000 civil penalty to the state’s Environmental Protection Trust Fund and provide $125,000 to Ducks Unlimited for a wetland restoration project at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in Fulton County. The company must also comply with the facility’s renewed wastewater discharge permit, which formally defines the mixing zone for thermal discharges and requires temperature standards to be met beyond it.
Alto neither admitted nor denied the alleged violations.
The restoration sends settlement dollars back to the river at the center of the case. Working under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guidance, Ducks Unlimited will replace a water-control structure on the refuge’s Wilder Tract across approximately 320 acres of Illinois River floodplain wetlands by November 30, 2027.
“Rivers can’t speak in court, so we speak for them,” PRN director of water policy Robert Hirschfeld said in a statement. “It’s encouraging to see the state work to protect its namesake river. This settlement holds Alto Pekin accountable for polluting the Illinois River while helping restore natural floodplain function across 320 acres of wetlands at Emiquon. Those wetlands will hold floodwater, welcome waterfowl, and remind us that rivers aren’t dumping grounds. They are communities of life that need protecting.”
Biofuel plants release hazardous emissions
The Environmental Integrity Project’s 2024 report, Farm to Fumes: Hazardous Air Pollution from Biofuel Production, found that Alto Pekin reported releasing 295,597 pounds of acetaldehyde, a hazardous air emission and probable human carcinogen, in 2022 — the second-highest total among all industrial facilities nationwide. The facility also reported releasing 9,403 pounds of the known human carcinogen formaldehyde, the sixth-highest total among biofuel plants.
Additionally, EIP identified Alto Pekin as a high-priority Clean Air Act violator in each of the 12 quarters reviewed from July 2021 through May 2024. EIP’s review found four Clean Air Act enforcement actions and $308,374 in penalties involving the facility during the preceding five years.
The problem extends beyond the greater Peoria area. EIP found that 226 U.S. biofuel plants reported 12.9 million pounds of hazardous air pollutants in 2022, while more than 40 percent of 240 plants violated their air-pollution permits at least once between July 2021 and May 2024. Illinois ethanol plants alone reported 2.2 million pounds of hazardous air pollutants in 2022.
“Corn ethanol is marketed as clean, homegrown energy, but the record tells a different story: years of alleged permit violations affecting the Illinois River and, at this same plant, the nation’s second-highest reported acetaldehyde emissions in 2022,” Hirschfeld said. “This settlement addresses a serious pattern of river pollution. It is not a clean bill of health for the facility or the ethanol industry at large. Communities should not have to trade clean water and clean air for an industry propped up by public mandates and subsidies.”
PRN will continue to monitor Alto Pekin’s compliance with its permit and the consent order, which resolves only the claims raised in the case and preserves the state’s rights regarding future violations and natural-resource damages.
“It’s never been more important that Illinois steps up to enforce our environmental laws as the federal government steps back from its obligations to protect our resources for future generations,” said Jack Darin, director of the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter. “This settlement includes an important improvement for the Illinois River and its wildlife and also sends a signal that polluters will still be held accountable in Illinois.”
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Pekin ethanol plant ordered to pay penalty, fund wetland project
Reporting by Mike Kramer, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mike Kramer, Peoria Journal Star | USA TODAY Network
