MILTON, Wisconsin — JoAnn Czajka's life has changed since the ethanol plant started operating 24/7 within a short distance from her Monroe home.
MILTON, Wisconsin — JoAnn Czajka's life has changed since the ethanol plant started operating 24/7 within a short distance from her Monroe home.
She keeps her windows shut and schedules gardening around a northerly wind during the summer. "If the plume is heading north, you can go out without holding your breath," Czajka said. "But if it's not, the smell gags you. No matter what fancy talk you're being given, an ethanol plant is not odor free."
Czajka was one of three out-of-town visitors who spoke at a meeting Wednesday to organize a petition drive in opposition to the ethanol plant in Milton.
"Your life will change" if this plant comes to Milton, Czajka said. "I want you to be aware." United Cooperative of Beaver Dam plans to break ground in May for a $60 million ethanol plant on a 51-acre site in Milton Township.
The Milton City Council is meeting Thursday to discuss annexing and rezoning the property for the plant.
The requests received the plan's commission approval at a public hearing Monday.
The petitions, which will be circulated throughout the city, will ask that voters be given a voice in deciding whether the ethanol plant will be built in Milton.
"Let the people decide, rather than the city council," said Dwight S. Brass of Edgerton, one of the petition drive organizers.
He and others plan to start circulating petitions in the Milton area today. The group's goal is to assure Milton residents have a say in the decision to build an ethanol plant in the east-side industrial park, Brass said.
"The mood is wait a minute, this is happening much faster than usual," Brass said. "It's probably the biggest thing to happen in Milton in years, yet it's being rushed through. We're trying to slow it down."
Voters should have the option of passing an ordinance that prohibits ethanol plants in city limits, Brass said.
If that happens, then any previous actions taken to build and operate the plant are nullified, Brass said.
"It's the same as the city council having a change of heart," Brass said.
Although he lives in Edgerton, Brass formerly worked for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, he said.
"This plant will emit one-quarter million cubic feet of carbon dioxide," Brass said. "Carbon dioxide is a major contributor of global warming. It's a greenhouse gas."
Another concern is the amount of fuel needed to operate the plant. In Monroe, the gas line to the plant is about 8 inches around, Brass said.
"It's a huge source of gas consumption," Brass said. "I can't believe it doesn't snuff out pilot lights all over the city."
Ethanol isn't cost-effective and requires large government subsidies, he said.
One gallon of ethanol costs $2.24 to produce compared to 63 cents per gallon for gasoline, Brass said. The gap is filled by $1.4 billion in government subsidies and mandates, he added.
These issues should be put on a ballot to allow city residents to vote yes or no to an ethanol plant in their backyards, Brass said.
Before the petitions are submitted to the city clerk, the group will need to gather 240 signatures from only city residents within 60 days.
Brass believes the petitions will serve as direct legislation. And state law says that direct legislation petitions require the signatures of 15 percent of the number of people in the city who voted in the last gubernatorial election. That number was 1,600, Brass said.
City Attorney Michael Haas, who also attended the meeting, said zoning ordinances can't be passed by direct legislation.
The other two visitors at the meeting were Horicon residents, who told of spending an entire summer fighting the construction of an ethanol plant in their community.
"The more we found out, the angrier we got," Bill Niemuth said.
For the residents of Horicon, the ethanol plant was seen as an environmental threat. The concerns included a drain on the community's groundwater levels and air pollution, Niemuth said.
As it turned out, the proposed plant in Horicon wasn't acceptable under the city's comprehensive land use plan, Niemuth said.
"As taxpayers, we would have been financing a for-profit business for someone else," said Charles Hinz, another Horicon resident.
Currently, the state only has three ethanol plants. They are in Monroe, Utica and Stanley.
Alba, Algoma, Horicon, Sheboygan, Cambria, Arlington, Menominee and Nekimi are other cities that fought to keep ethanol plants out of their communities, said Dianne Moller, another meeting organizer.
Their fights were successful, Moller said.
"There's a reason why so many cities are fighting ethanol plants and why only three cities in Wisconsin have these plants," Hinz said.
Moller lives about 2,500 feet from where the ethanol plant would be built. And she doesn't want it in her backyard, she said.
Councilman Bruce Lippincott, who also attended the meeting, told of spending a day in Monroe and talking to people about the ethanol plant before making a decision on the one to be built in Milton. He heard no complaints, Lippincott said.
"They said there were no problems with odors or noise," Lippincott said. Deb Hummel, a local resident, said she had no idea the city was welcoming an ethanol plant into the community until reading about it in a newspaper.
"When did the average person learn about this?" she asked. "I was really flabbergasted that the city didn't give the average person on the street time to learn about this. This is a sleepy, nice town. This will destroy it."
To see more of The Janesville Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.gazetteextra.com. Copyright (c) 2005, The Janesville Gazette, Wis. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
