MEAD — Most of the residents of Mead and the surrounding area have heard about AltEn and the environmental crisis created there.
Of the few hundred people who responded to a survey from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, 80% said they had heard about the plant being the source of a cocktail of pesticides that has spilled into the surrounding countryside.
But to Jesse Bell, the director of the Water, Climate and Health Program at UNMC, the next data point — even at a preliminary stage — is even more alarming.
Three-quarters of the survey respondents (38% of the 977 people sent a survey returned it) said they are worried about how AltEn might impact their lives.
“You can tell people are very concerned about cleanup of the site,” Bell said. “They are concerned about the potential exposures they are facing because of that, the smells and all that other stuff.”
The ethanol plant in the Saunders County village of nearly 600 people generated national and international headlines for its unusual biofuel production method, which was noticed by the nauseous odor it emitted.
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