Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the United States (2008) / Chapter Skim
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3 Water Quality
3 Water Quality
Pages 27-36
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From page 27... ...
HOW MIGHT INCREASED BIOMASS PRODUCTION AFFECT THE WATER QUALITY OF OUR RIVERS? Biomass feedstocks such as corn grain, soybeans, and mixed-species grassland biomass differ in current or proposed application rates of fertilizers and of pesticides.
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From page 28... ...
The native grasses compare highly favorably to corn and soy for both fertilizers and pesticides, with order-of-magnitude lower application rates. The impacts of these differences in inputs can be visualized nationally by comparing N inputs (such as fertilizer and manure)
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From page 29... ...
(bottom) Atrazine application rates and stream concentrations of atrazine.
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From page 30... ...
, as well as expansion of biomass production on non-CRP marginal land, due to increases in food and energy prices. The CRP makes annual rental payments to farmers to convert environmentally sensitive or highly erodible acreage to native grasses, wildlife plantings, trees, filter strips, and riparian buffers.
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From page 31... ...
. Given the correlation of nitrogen application rates to stream concentrations of total nitrogen, and of the latter to the increase in hypoxia in the nation's waterbodies, the potential for additional corn-based ethanol production to increase the extent of these hypoxic regions is considerable.
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From page 32... ...
water quality standards classify wells that have nitrate+nitrite levels greater than 10 milligrams per liter as impaired and recommend that water be treated to remove the nitrate and nitrite before consumption. Failure to do so can have significant health impacts, including causing "blue baby syndrome" in infants, when ingested nitrite binds with hemoglobin thus preventing oxygen transport.
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From page 33... ...
HOW CAN ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT BIOMASS TYPES BE COMPARED? There are many possible metrics, but an index that builds on the work shown in Figure 3-1 is inputs of fertilizers and pesticides per unit of the net energy gain captured in a biofuel.
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From page 34... ...
Otger Glyphosate Metolachlor Acetochlor Atrazine Other Glyphosate N P Pesticide Fertilizer Corn grain ethanol Soybean biodiesel FIGURE 3-5 Environmental effects from the complete production and combustion life cycles of corn grain ethanol and soybean biodiesel. The figure shows the application of both (a)
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From page 35... ...
2002. Probability of nitrate contamination of recently re charged groundwaters in the conterminous United States.
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From page 36... ...
Courtesy of the Natural Resources Conservation Service Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture
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