UNMC SCIENTISTS: MEAD RESIDENTS HAVE REASON TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT ALTEN WASTE

MEAD- The now closed AltEn Ethanol Plant in Mead is again the topic of discussion, but this time by scientists.

Residents have been concerned for over a year now about the plant handlings and this week Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said that those concerns are valid.

“There are good reasons to suspect that there could be adverse impacts", Dr. Khan said. 

Dr. Khan told Mead residents that air samples have been taken, and the inside of one Mead home was swabbed for pesticides. Samples have also been taken from the wet cake piles and from soil nearby, as well as from two streams that drain from the AltEn site, just south of Mead.

Results from many of the tests are three to six months away, Khan said, adding that researchers may need 10 years to figure out whether the contamination has caused adverse health and environmental impacts. 

Officials said that a medical registry of local residents will soon begin to track medical issues to see if they differ from those experienced elsewhere. 

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