Purdue, ISDA offer advice to farmers intending to replant

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service experts and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), with sponsorship from the Indiana Corn Growers Assoc. and the Indiana Soybean Alliance, have joined forces to assist farmers with technical assistance relating to the recent floods.

The group hosted a call-in forum on June 20 to provide technical assistance to crop farmers, specifically on recovering and replanting flooded fields. For those who were unable to participate or did not know about the forum and wish to listen via computer, it was recorded and is available on both the ISDA and Purdue extension websites.

Those addresses are, respectively, www.isda.in.gov and www.extension.purdue.edu/eden/disastertopics/floodstorms/index.html

Company abandons plans for Illinois ethanol plants
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — A Tennessee company has abandoned plans to build up to seven ethanol plants across Illinois.
Heartland Ethanol spokesman Mike Craig said last week’s decision was based on the high price of corn, which is the main ingredient in ethanol. He also said the company had a tough time borrowing money to build.

Heartland had planned the past two years to build plants with local investors. Proposed plant locations included: Royal, just north of Champaign; Vandalia, about 50 miles east of St. Louis; Gridley, 20 miles northeast of Peoria; and Waverly, about 15 miles northeast of Springfield.

Other locations were Griggsville, about 20 miles east of Quincy; Ransom, roughly 30 miles southeast of Joliet; and Mendota, about 30 miles south of Rockford.

Magellan to pay $5 million fine for pipeline spills
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Magellan Midstream Partners has agreed to pay a $5 million fine for alleged spills from its petroleum pipeline at 11 locations in six states, including Iowa.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice said the alleged violations include discharging gasoline and fuel oil from pipelines in Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota and Arkansas between 1999-2006. The spills were caused by damage from farm equipment and bulldozers, corrosion, leaks and pipeline operator error, federal officials said.

Under the agreement, the company also will spend $750,000 to remove or minimize such incidents and to improve employee training and leak response procedures. The company said it previously set aside the money for the fine and that it is focused on ensuring compliance with all laws.

A federal complaint alleges more than 17,000 barrels of gas and fuel oil were spilled. The Iowa spills included 745 barrels of diesel at Coralville in February 2000 and a smaller incident in Hartland in 1999.

Oklahoma-based Magellan owns a 6,700-mile petroleum pipeline network and 39 terminals in 11 states.

Officials ask farmers not to dump debris back into streams
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State environmental officials are asking farmers to properly dispose of debris left in their fields by floodwaters that have swept through Iowa.

The Department of Natural Resources asks landowners not to dump sand, silt or other debris back into streams. They say that doing so could cause damage downstream or it could settle in place and cause water to backup into upland areas.

Officials say dumping debris in streams could violate state and federal regulations. They ask landowners to contact the state for help with disposal efforts.

Livestock farmers are also being asked to check manure storage structures that could be vulnerable because of saturated soils.

Report compares costs of animal disease outbreak
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The government acknowledged that an outbreak of one of the most contagious animal diseases from any of five locations being considered for a new high-security laboratory – an event it considered highly unlikely – would be more devastating to the U.S. economy than an outbreak from the isolated island lab where such research is now conducted.

The 1,005-page Homeland Security Department study, released Friday, calculated that economic losses in an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease could surpass $4 billion if the lab were built near livestock herds in Kansas or Texas, two options the Bush administration is considering. That would be roughly $1 billion higher than the government’s estimate of losses blamed on a hypothetical outbreak from its existing laboratory on Plum Island, N.Y.

The administration is studying the safest place to move its research on such dangerous pathogens from Plum Island to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak. A final choice is expected by late fall. The foot-and-mouth virus does not infect humans but could devastate herds of cattle, swine, lambs and sheep.

The five locations the U.S. is considering are Athens, Ga.; Manhattan, Kan.; Butner, N.C.; San Antonio; and Flora, Miss.