Citizens, politicians protest AltEn cleanup

LINCOLN, Neb. – Dozens of people gathered in the Nebraska State Capitol Monday morning to protest the response to an ethanol plant’s contamination of air and water in southeast Nebraska.

State Sen. Carol Blood and several others met in the Capitol for the “Stop the Alt En Cover-Up” rally.

Earlier this week, it was announced that the piles of byproducts near Mead in Saunders County will be covered up with a substance called Posi-Shell. Blood said the substance would be applied without any liner or protective layer placed underneath.

“When you look at the mix made by these chemically treated seeds, a type of toxic soup, a witches brew, was created with a concentration of harmful chemicals that are two and a half times higher than the seed alone as a marketable product,” Blood said at the rally Monday.

Blood has introduced LR159, which would call for an investigative committee to research the cause of the AltEn situation.