Sarah Lloyd, Cambrians for Thoughtful Development

Sarah Lloyd is a member of Cambrians for Thoughtful Development, a citizens group concerned about a proposed ethanol plant in Cambria, Wis. She also works at the Aldo Leopold Foundation and tends to a large garden from which she eats and sells vegetables locally.

It's difficult to write about events at home when the U.S. is dropping bombs on Iraq. It is a foggy, rainy morning here in Cambria, and it fits my mood. I think about all the people over there -- both in our military and the people of Iraq and other countries that will be directly affected by these military actions -- and I get scared. I also think about the oil fires that resulted from the last Gulf War, and about the immense amount of resources consumed in war, and it seems frivolous to talk about ethanol and concerns of local air emissions and water use. I feel very discouraged.

There are 13 days left until the April 1 referendum and the village board election. Yesterday, many people got a letter in the mail from a group calling themselves Citizens for Cambria's Future. The letter urged people to vote in favor of the ethanol plant, claiming that it would increase the tax base. I guess money talks, because we have also been putting together numbers about the taxes and costs to the village associated with the ethanol plant.

Didion Milling recently won an appeal of the state's assessment of its actual tax. The taxable value of Didion's existing milling operations was originally set at $4.6 million but was decreased to $3 million. As a result, the annual taxes paid to the village went from $37,950 to $24,750. Most of this reassessment was based on the fact that Wisconsin allows companies to exempt manufacturing equipment. Didion convinced the tax agency that its grain storage silos were manufacturing equipment. With the addition of an ethanol plant, Didion is talking about a $1 million increase in the taxable value of its plant. This would result in an increase of $8,000 in taxes to the village -- or $26 per household per year.

So I guess in some ways Cambria needs to decide if $26 per household per year is a sufficient incentive to "host" this plant. There will be the hard costs of road maintenance and perhaps an upgrade of the sewage treatment facility. Of course we are told about the trickle down of every dollar spent in relation to the plant, and there may be some truth to that. But with a dying main street with very limited retail opportunities, you'd have to buy a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches at the local diner to equal the $100 million-plus that is being bandied around as the positive impact on the local economy. I suppose if you are making $9.75 an hour at one of the 20 new jobs promised by the company you might splurge and get a milkshake.

Okay, I'll stop with the sarcasm. Yesterday, on the radio, Didion's general manager and PR consultant kept talking about how the Department of Natural Resources allows the company to emit 100 tons of volatile organic compounds and that the company will act within the law so that we the people have nothing to worry about. I tried to point out that it was still 100 tons of toxic chemicals, and that those chemicals were going to be released next to a school. The other guest on the radio show, an energy economist from the university, asked the Didion crew how they thought the permits would be enforced given that the DNR just cut 11 more jobs in the already understaffed air-monitoring division. The general manager just repeated that the company plans to act within the law.

I think about projects that are being funded by USAID and private foundations in Russia and other places, for citizens to take on environmental monitoring roles because the government is not providing that service. Perhaps we need to apply for some of that funding here in the U.S., too.

My sour mood is coming out loud and clear in my writing today. I guess I better sign off before it gets worse.