High Hopes for Jet Biofuel, but Greens, Tribes and at Least Some Ag Groups Oppose Irrigation Plan

Hopes for a green jet-fuel industry are based on this plant, camelina sativa. But diverting more water to grow it raises the hackles of some groups, environmentalists among them.

By John Stang

Contributing writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, Jan. 12.—A proposal to provide irrigation water to boost Washington's fledgling jet biofuel industry could get snagged in the state's complex water rights picture.

But it should at least get out of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

Committee chairman Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen has introduced a bill to set aside 100,000 acre-feet annually in the Columbia River and Lower Snake River basins to be used for organic crops or for crops that can be converted into biofuels. Several Democrats and Republicans on the committee have co-sponored the bill.

Blake's bill would allow up to 100,000 acre-feet of river water to irrigate those crops. The water would be allowed to be used along the Columbia River upstream from Bonneville Dam and up to Lower Monumental Dam, which is the second Snake River dam upstream from the junction with the Columbia River.

The bill would allow up to 2.8 acre-feet of water on an acre of land. If every irrigated acre received 2.8 acre-feet of water, that would translate to 37,714 acres or 55.8 square miles of crop land. The idea is that farmers could grow organic crops or biofuel crops with the water or other crops without that water -- depending on what the market wants.

The committee held a public hearing on the bill Wednesday.

The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association -- the leading farmers’ organization along the Columbia and Snake basins – supports the bill.  The bill won't cost the state any money and 100,000 acre-feet is a drop of water compared to the vast volumes of the two rivers, said Darryll Olsen, resource economist for the association.

Opposed by Tribes, Environmentalists, Ag Group

The Washington State Horticultural Association, the Sierra Club, the Washington Environmental Council, the Yakama Indian Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation oppose the bill, because they contend it would affect senior water rights along the rivers. They argue the bill would remove the 100,000 acre-feet from a longtime legal practice that bases water withdrawal from Washington's rivers based on seniority of claims. The state's tribes have the most-senior water rights claims.

Evan Sheffels, special assistant for water policy at the state Department of Ecology,  speculated that the bill could lead to water rights litigation because such lawsuits are common in this area. He also said the ecology department would need more money to hire people to handle the extra water-withdrawal permits.

Opponents contend special water rights for organic and biofuel crops could lead to more exceptions to the seniority system.

"We view this as a dangerous precedent," said John Halstrom of the horticultural association.

Could Delay Green Fuel Industry

Two jet biofuel ventures – AltAir and Imperium Renewables – are located near Aberdeen in Grays Harbor County.  AltAir hopes to finish building its plant in 2013 to produce 100 million gallons of biofuel annually. The Imperium Renewables plant is already in operation, hoping to eventually expand to prodcuing 195 million gallons of biofuel annually.

Meanwhile, commerical airlines and the U.S. Navy already use jet biofuel.

Canola, nuts, soybeans, and algae have been used as sources for biofuel.

Camelina, a type of mustard seed capable of squeezing out more petroleum-like oils than other feedstock crops — has become a popular source. And it is not a food crop. It can be grown in fields that are fallow between growing food crops. One camelina feedstock advantage is that it can use land that is too marginal for growing crops.

Just to make the math easy, assume an acre of camelina becomes 100 gallons of jet fuel. So 20,000 acres becomes 2 million gallons of jet fuel — 0.0001 percent of the more than 20 billion gallons of jet fuel produced annually in the United States.

Camelina-based jet fuel creates about 20 percent of the carbon emission of petroleum-based jet fuel.

Washington harvested 20,000 acres of camelina in 2009, according to the state agriculture department.

           Might Provide 1 Percent of Fuel

            While eco-friendly, it will likely be decades before jet biofuel will provide a signifcant percentage of the nation's jet fuel.

It takes an acre of camelina, canola or another vegetable-oil crop to produce 60 to 120 gallons of jet fuel, according to Washington State University.

Just to make the math easy, assume an acre of camelina becomes 100 gallons of jet fuel. So 20,000 acres becomes 2 million gallons of jet fuel — 0.0001 percent of the more than 20 billion gallons of jet fuel produced annually in the United States -- or 2 percent of what AltAir's plant needs. Camelina is heavily grown in Canada and Montana.

In 2010, President Barack Obama announced an initiative to increase the nation's production of all biofuels — of which jet fuel is just a small fraction — from 11.1 billion gallons in 2009 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. That initiative includes plans to expand grants, loans, and other financial aid to farmers growing crops for biofuels.