South Dakota clean energy farms have detrimental side-effects on rural residents

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Diesel emissions are detrimental to the environment as well as a person’s health and while some farms in South Dakota are doing their best to curb those emissions, some say it’s not doing as much good as it sounds.

California emission standards set ways for companies to purchase tax credits from South Dakota to offset diesel emissions in their state.

Now producers in the Midwest have been asked to set up what are called “anaerobic digesters” which pull methane from livestock manure and convert it into clean fuel. Stacy Roberts, who lives in rural South Dakota, says two medium-scale operations have moved within a couple of miles of her house, on top of the dairy operations that are already there. Roberts cites overcrowding of animals as one of the negative effects these operations have but it’s not the only one.

”It’s taking up crop land. It’s taking up resources. It’s taking up water. When the operations went in very close to me, our neighbor area, our largest concern was water quality. We happen to be in a spot where we don’t have rural water,” said Roberts.

Roberts went on to say she supports finding cleaner energy sources but believes there is no way for energy to be completely “clean” because of the negative effects the energy can have on other resources.

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