Nebraska Water Woes: The True Cost of Carbon Capture in Nebraska
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Authors: Don Johannsen, Shelli Meyer
September 2024
Contact: Nebraska Easement Action Team
See also: Water Woes: Uncovering the True Costs of Summit’s Carbon Pipeline in Iowa, by Iowa Chapter Sierra Club (June 2024)
SUMMIT DEMANDS OUR WATER
Summit Carbon Solutions is proposing a carbon capture project located at 4 ethanol plants. Locally, statewide and regionally, this project threatens to deplete public water resources from ground water and aquifers. It also will use a substantial amount of electricity, and other resources used by the state.
Water would be used in Summit’s operation to capture carbon dioxide at the ethanol plants to cool the carbon dioxide as it is being compressed. The amount of water that would be needed to produce ethanol and Summit’s proposed carbon capture project far exceeds the water usage for communities in a 10-mile radius surrounding the plants.
The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources does not list the source of the water from the well permit data. It is not known if the plants draw their water from alluvial or bedrock aquifer sources. Alluvial aquifers are fairly quickly recharged by rain and snow melt, but bedrock aquifers recharge very slowly.
The High Plains Aquifer, also known as the Ogallala aquifer is a combination of both types and is the largest in the state. There are also secondary aquifers which are much smaller in areal extent and generally are poorer water quality. See report from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, “An Overview of Secondary Aquifers in Nebraska | UNL Water.”
AQUIFER LEVELS DECLINING
Many water uses like power generation, public water and irrigation use water from alluvial aquifers and ground water sources which can recharge relatively quickly. The 4 plants are all located withing the range of the Ogallala aquifer. As noted by the Nebraska Corn Board, this aquifer is down as much as 100 feet since 1950 and could be depleted in 50 – 100 years.
The High Plains Aquifer is shown in blue. The black dots represent wells completed in secondary aquifers. These secondary aquifers are the water supply for more than 4,000 active wells across 30 counties.
High Plains Aquifer (blue)
SUMMIT’S STATEWIDE IMPACT
The combination of the 4 Summit ethanol plants will use twice as much water as all of the 14 cities within a 10-mile radius of each plant
Composite of All (4) Ethanol Plants in Nebraska:
- The total population within a 10-mile radius of the ethanol plants is 38,569.
- The ethanol capacity of the 4 plants is 350 MGY per the Renewable Fuels Association
- Personal water usage assumes 70 gallons/person/day x city population
- Cities included: Hoskins, Hadar, Battle Creek, Norfolk, Foster, Osmond, Plainview, Emmet, Stuart, Atkinson, Loretto, St. Edward, Albion, and Boone
With combined production and CO2 Capture the ethanol plant power and 2023 water usage would be equivalent to:
The Summit pipeline crosses through 320 miles and 9 counties in Nebraska. The plants will use twice as much water as all of the 14 nearest cities combined. Adding CO2 capture to the existing 4 ethanol plants is equivalent to building 1.5 additional ethanol plants in Nebraska. 4.7 gallons of water is used per gallon of ethanol for production.
Potential total electricity to produce ethanol and capture CO2 – kWh = 210,000,000 + 131,950,000 for CO2 capture.
Natural gas use per gallon ethanol per Bio Renewable Policy paper: It takes 26,000 BTUs per gallon of ethanol. Ethanol = 12% of the state’s total population.
Water for Summit Capture Facilities would significantly impact Nebraska’s water and other resources (for private gain) and will impact the communities and rural livelihoods and wells surrounding the ethanol plants.
See Pie Graphs below for detail:
View and download the Nebraska Water Woes report (PDF):
Nebraska Water WoesUniv. of Nebraska-Lincoln: An Overview of Secondary Aquifers in Nebraska:
An Overview of Secondary Aquifers in Nebraska