WILSON, Minn. – A Shell Oil Company subsidiary, Nature Energy, wants to build a giant manure-digester plant just off the Interstate 90 exit to Winona. The plant would create natural gas. The multi-million dollar proposal has been circulating mostly unnoticed in Winona County and Wilson Township government circles for months but didn’t come public visibility until it appeared on the Wilson Township Board’s agenda for Tuesday. The company needs environmental and other permits to proceed. The first news of the plan spread immediately over the weekend among environmentalists who rallied to organize objections at the Township Board meeting. Margaret Walsh, an opposition organizer, said the proposal had been moving forward “in a somewhat shrouded manner.” The mature, in liquid form, would be “land applied.” Like all of Winona County, the site is interlaced underground with porous limestone that ground-water vulnerable to contamination. The plant would process 1.5 million pounds of manure a year, mostly from dairies, according to documents that the resistance has obtained. The manure would be trucked from dairy farms within 20 miles with 90 to 100 loads a day. Concerns include odor; damage to property values; safety including spills, explosions, hazardous chemicals; truck traffic, noise, water contamination and nutrient management.
Aerial view. Of a Nature Energy methane plant proposed at Roberts, Wisconsin, and rejected last fall by the Village Board.
.
Manure’s full circle
The Nature Energy proposal would haul manure away from dairies free. In return, farmers would receive what’s called “digestat” in the form of fertilizer products custom-tailored to their soil. The natural gas would be injected into an existing natural gas pipeline system.
Stacks above the tree line
A similar project rejected in August by local officials in Roberts, Wisconsin, included these structures:
> Eight digesters as tall as 85 feet.
> Three stacks, each from 100 to 200 feet tall.
> Three storage ranks, each 47 feet tall.
> Five buildings, each 35 to 50 feet tall.
These would be immediately west of the Wilson Fire Station off State Highway 43.