AltEn crisis

Click the links to visit specific information about AltEn

Videos/audio/photos * Print news  *  Government/LegalOpinion * Legislative & Technical * Back to homepage

This page is devoted to the ongoing environmental crisis at the AltEn ethanol plant in Mead, NE

The Perivallon Group is made up of a group of volunteers seeking solutions to the environmental concerns at the AltEn plant and other parts of the state that may have been contaminated. This site is maintained by the Nebraska Sierra Club.

Contact Al Davis for more information.  

 

 *****

Schalles map

Most recent:

After a massive bee kill, a scientist challenges pesticide policies, by Rebecca Raney, U.S. Right to Know Review, March 12, 2024

Jim Macy, state environmental chief for nine years, to retire next month: Some criticized the director and the agency for not acting sooner to shut down notorious AltEn ethanol plant, by Paul Hammel, Nebraska Examiner, March 11, 2024.

AltEn cleanup making progress despite setbacks; contractor says there's 'room for improvement,' by Chris Dunker, Lincoln Journal Star, December 20, 2023

Buzzkill: A bee researcher's colonies kept dying, and she couldn't figure out why. Then, she looked at the ethanol factory down the road, by Dan Charles, Food & Environment Reporting Network, December 18, 2023

Blood updates League of Women Voters on Mead ethanol plant woes, by Savana Kascak, Hastings Tribune, Dec. 11, 2023

AltEn Cleanup Ongoing, Lawsuit Slows: More Than 10,000 Tons of Wet Cake to Be Removed at Nebraska Ethanol Plant, Progressive Farmer powered by DTN, by Todd Neeley, November 17, 2023.

Telling the story: UNL students relish opportunity to study AltEn contamination, Lincoln Journal Star, by Chris Dunker, Nov. 12, 2023

Mead residents still being exposed to pesticides from AltEn, study shows, Lincoln Journal Star, by Chris Dunker, September 16, 2023

Cleanup of contaminated solid waste to begin next month at AltEn near Mead, Nebraska, Lincoln Journal Star, by Chris Dunker, August 22, 2023

AltEn Fights Bayer on Plant Cleanup, DTN.com, by Todd Neeley, August 15, 2023.

High levels of methane found in AltEn groundwater well-casings, KETV,  by Jessica Perez, July 13, 2023.

Mead Ethanol Plant Cleanup in New Phase: Engineers Consider Moving Waste From Closed AltEn Nebraska Ethanol Plant to Landfills, Progressive Farmer, by Todd Neeley, June 7, 2023

Trucks begin hauling trash from AltEn site, Wahoo Newspaper,  by Suzi Nelson, May 31, 2023

Clean up of AltEn site enters new phase, waste could be headed to Omaha landfill, Nebraska Examiner, by Paul Hammel, May 25, 2023.

Nebraska leaders skeptical about cleanup of solid waste from AltEn in Mead, WOWT News, May 26,  2023

Updates from the AltEn Facility Response Group (FRG) on remediation efforts at AltEn’s vacated ethanol production facility in Mead, Nebraska.

Under the EPA’s watch, unchecked insecticides are causing another ‘Silent Spring’ by Clay Bolt, opinion contributor, The Hill, May 20, 2023

*****

Lincoln Journal Star, April 3, 2023

AltEn Landfill 1
AltEn Landfill 2
LJS Alten 3-5-23
LJS 3-5-23 part 2

‘There’s a red flag here’: how an ethanol plant is dangerously polluting a US village' in The Guardian  (January 10. 2021).  This article first brought public attention to the situation, by Carey Gillam.

Follow-up article:  'The sad story of Mead, Nebraska: Toxic contamination persists amid clean-up efforts,' by Carey Gillam (March 31, 2022).

Click here to view the Town Hall meeting about the AltEn ethanol plant in Mead, NE on April 12, 2021

Click here to view information about the Town Hall meeting at the Mead Firehall on June 16, 2022

Video of the AltEn contamination Town Hall meeting in Mead, NE on the January 30, 2023 featuring researchers from UNMC, UNL and Creighton University.

 

Second follow-up article: ‘We want it back to what it was’: the US village blighted by toxic waste, The Guardian co-published with The New Lede, by Carey Gillam, April 26, 2022.

How a Nebraska ethanol plant turned seeds into toxic waste, Grist, by Diana Kruzman (April 21, 2022).

Click here to view information about the Town Hall meeting at the Mead Firehall on June 16, 2022

AltEn & Surroundings
Tributaries surrounding the AltEn plant, Courtesy of Dr. John Schalles

*****

Click here to view videos/audio/photos about AltEn

Click here to view videos/audio/photos about AltEn

Click here to view government and legal information about AltEn

Click here to view print media news coverage of AltEn

Click here to view opinion articles about AltEn

Click here to view legislative and technical information about AltEn

 

Drone photo from NDEE showing the Posi-Shell covering that was applied to the contaminated by-products showing pooled liquid that is problemat

 

 

Click here to see the April 12, 2021 Town Hall meeting about environmental concerns at the AltEn ethanol plant.

Click here to view information and recordings from the June16, 2002 Town Hall meeting held at the Mead Fire Hall.

Click here to view the University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Public Health's webpage on "Tracking contamination around a closed ethanol plant."

 

Click Part 1 and Part 2 of Green Bellevue's virtual Panel Presentation: "Why What Happened in Mead, NE Should Concern All Nebraskans."

*****
 

Historical: 2007 publication 'Roadbuilders' Edge,' (touting a so-called 'closed loop technology')

 

 Page maintained by David E. Corbin