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12-14-2009, 06:55 AM
The November study from the Government Accountability Office quotes Argonne National Laboratory data that says farmers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas use, on average, 323.6 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol from corn, with all but 3 of those gallons used for irrigation. The GAO says that's 20 to 30 times the amount of water used in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's two other main corn producing regions, where rainfall is more plentiful. The region that includes Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri uses 10 gallons of water for every gallon of ethanol, while the region encompassing Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan uses 16.8 gallons of water. "As demand for water from various sectors increases and places additional stress on already constrained supplies, the effects of expanded biofuel production may need to be considered," the GAO noted in its report.
For more information:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHSDt2yCriLfRa-Tb1cua_yIGmKwD9CGVPC01
For more information:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHSDt2yCriLfRa-Tb1cua_yIGmKwD9CGVPC01