Tomorrow night the Decatur city council will be discussing an initiative to introduce alternative biofuel grasses to the Lake Decatur watershed area.  If I got it right, this pertains to grasses that could be used as a bio-energy source and a means to help prevent soil erosion, which is causing sediment buildup in Lake Decatur.  It’s purpose is to study how well such grasses would do in our area and encourage farmers to switch to such grasses for biofuel production.  Well, considering Central Illinois was once covered with 12 foot tall prairie grasses, I think our soil can grow grass pretty darn good!

Unlike corn, grass actually gives back considerable amounts of nutrients to the soil, thus requiring far less, if any fertilizer – which finds its way into our water supply.  After all, we can credit the prairie grasses that once covered our part of the state for our rich soil.

Personally, I’ve never been a proponent of corn-based ethanol.  Corn ethanol, in essence, takes about as much energy to produce as it yields.  It’s also highly subsidized by the federal government and takes massive amounts of water to produce.  It requires approximately 1,700 gallons of fresh water to produce one gallon of ethanol!  This is undoubtedly a huge strain on our lake and local water supply.  We’re not alone.  Other regions in the county have dealt with the strain corn-based ethanol production puts on their water supplies.  Switching to grasses, like Switchgrass for our biofuel needs, is certainly something to consider.

Here’s an interesting article on switchgrass:  http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html

City Council Agenda for January 20, 2009:  http://decaturil.gov/citygovernment/council/council_agenda.htm