Environmentalists say grass touted as basis for alternative fuel can be invasive

Environmentalists say grass touted as basis for alternative fuel can be invasive

By John Ramsey
Staff writer

The towering grassy cane plant known as arundo donax is either the most promising energy crop for North Carolina's biofuel industry or the most terrifying.

Its fast growth on even marginal soil makes it an ideal second-generation biofuel, where more plant mass means more energy.

But those same traits, along with its ability to sprout new stalks from a broken piece of its stem, worry environmental groups that envision it accidentally becoming the state's next invasive species.

Despite objections in a letter signed by 70 environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in July approved the plant for use as an energy crop, clearing the way for it to be planted in North Carolina as long as safety measures are followed.

"With arundo, we're not convinced that any planting will be risk-free," said Maggie Monast, policy analyst for the Environmental Defense Fund, one of the groups opposed to using the plant. "We're a hurricane-prone state. For a plant that spreads by little pieces of bits and roots, the thought of a hurricane coming through and flooding an area with arundo is really troubling."

Chemtex - an Italian company planning to build a $200 million refinery in Sampson County to convert 20 million tons of grassy plants into biofuel each year - favors arundo over other energy crops because it has the potential to yield the most tons of material per acre.

California and Texas have had problems with arundo after planting it in areas to try to control erosion, with California spending more than $70 million in the past two decades to try to eradicate it. All of the states that border North Carolina list arundo as an invasive or noxious weed.

Chemtex executives and some researchers say concerns about arundo here are overblown. They contend that its use in other states to control erosion made it more likely to spread.

"In Europe, it's viewed much more differently," said Paolo Carollo, executive vice president of Chemtex. "It's understood that, managed in a field environment, it's containable."

Arundo donax is not new to North Carolina. It has long been sold as an ornamental plant.

John Garner, superintendent of an N.C. State University farm near Wallace where test plots of the crop are growing, is among those who think the giant reed can be contained.

"People ask me a lot, is it invasive?" Garner said. "When I think invasive, I think kudzu. It's not kudzu. It's bad stuff if it gets in the wrong place, but it ain't going to take over the world."

Garner makes a note on Google Maps of every arundo donax plant he sees in North Carolina. So far, he has between 30 and 40 sites, including the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro and in many residential backyards. He's been tracking a patch in Lumberton, where the state Department of Transportation mows it along with the grass. It has not spread in the three years since he first noticed it.

But many fear the risk of using arundo when Chemtex can use other plants with less potential for invasiveness. Arundo's allure is its ability to grow as tall as 30 feet and yield more biomass than other plants, such as miscanthus or switchgrass.

"It's like the oil exploration industry," said John Bonitz, a biomass specialist with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "They want to go for the well that's going to have the highest pressure behind it, but those can also be the most dangerous to control."

Although arundo can now be planted as an energy crop, it cannot be used on hog waste spray fields, where the majority of energy crops in eastern North Carolina are likely to be grown. It has not been proven to take up enough of the nitrogen from hog waste that is required for those fields.

The N.C. Biofuels Center, which has been testing arundo and more than a dozen other potential energy crops, supports planting arundo here.

"There was a lot of concern, and rightly, given the concerns with arundo donax in Texas and California, where it was planted as erosion control," said Steve Wall, director of policy and environmental issues for the Biofuels Center. "It's a completely different scenario from a cash-driven crop, which is what it will be in North Carolina."