By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     Ethanol developers at Madrid gained approval for an additional water allocation of 243 million gallons annually to develop a second plant there.
     Members of the Upper Republican Natural Resource District board approved the request during their regular meeting May 1.
     Mid-America/Agri Products is already building a 44 million gallon ethanol plant just north of Madrid. This plant is expected to be operational by June 1.
     The company has already begun site preparation for a second plant about a half mile east of the first plant. The second plant will produce 110 million gallons of ethanol per year.
     Mid-America/Agri Products already had a water allocation for the first plant, granted by the NRD almost two years ago.
     The URNRD required a 50 percent offset of the requested allocation for the second plant.
     This mirrors recent requests granted for ethanol plants proposed in Wauneta and Imperial.
     Larry Hurley, chief operating officer for the company, said six wells will be abandoned. Three are already out of service and they have options on land to take three more wells out of service.
     He said the allocations for the two plants will be combined with two new wells and one emergency backup well being drilled to supply the two plants.
     Total allocation for the two plants will be 936 million gallons.
     Hurley said advances in ethanol technology have significantly reduced the amount of water needed to produce a gallon of ethanol.
     When construction began on the first plant, it took from five to six gallons of water for every gallon of ethanol produced. New technology has reduced that need to less than three gallons, he said.
     Mid-America/Agri Products is also constructing a 40-million gallon plant in Cambridge that will begin production in November.