Gopher State Ethanol


The 3 Mile Island of the Ethanol Industry


last update Sept 28, 2005
This is the home page for the GSE Information Web site. In it we will detail as much as we can about Gopher State Ethanol and it's operations in St Paul Minnesota.

HOT NEWS:

Gopher State Ethanol is Closed for Good. - in late Sept a party was held for the final ending of Gopher State Ethanol. The neighborhood gathered for a great time to celebrate the demise of this toxic menace to the neighborhood.
While we will try to maintain this site for as long as is possible, there is more information out there and will be held on Government Servers for a long time. Links to these sites are as follows. http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/sep05/355883.asp (From the Milwaukee Journal)
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/NEWS03/509110345/1005 (From the Des Moines Register)
Minnesota Department of Health was a great resource, and it was their people who really did the legwork to make people pay attention. Herešs their website on Gopher State Ethanol: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/sites/ramsey/gopher/
MDH prepared a Public Health Assessment for the plant. This is likely the most important document you can use because it has the details of the poisons coming out of ethanol plants, and has the legitimacy that a document prepared by a governmental unit carries: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/sites/ramsey/gopher/pha.html
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was less than helpful to us, and it was clear they were firmly in the pocket of the industry, but herešs their website on it: http://www.pca.state.mn.us/hot/gopherstate/
One of the things that came about as we fought this battle was a savvy use of the internet to get our message out. We learned how to (and how not to) use public forums to advance our cause and get our message out. A local online citizensš group has put together a 10 minute video about the use of the ŗSt. Paul Issues forum˛ as a media tool. Go to this site and click on the picture of the old brewery smokestack on the right to see it (and to see me yammering on a bit). http://e-democracy.org/experience/
The site is currently mostly empty, and wešre looking at preservation and redevelopment issues, and others have recognized how important the buildings on the site are. It was named as one of the statešs most endangered historic properties this last spring, and was the subject of a National Trust for Historic Preservation feature: http://www.mnpreservation.org/ http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/041505.htm
Brewery property fails to find buyer Auction produces one bid of $4 million
BY LAURA YUEN
"A bankruptcy auction Friday that could have helped decide a new fate for the old Schmidt brewery ended quietly without a sale, leaving community representatives angry and the future of the St. Paul icon unresolved."
GSE Up for Auction
On Dec 14th GSE presented the a release stating the plant is up for court ordered liquidation.
These links will take you to the documents necessary to make a bid on GSE or any par of the materials or land being sold. - all are PDF Files
1. Postcard - Full Color
2. Bidding Process - link -
3. Confidential Agreement - link - 4. Court Filing docs - link -
On Dec 14th GSE presented the a release stating the plant is up for court ordered liquidation. -Link To Press Release - click here -

Court to Determine if owners can bid
on Court Ordered Sale of GSE
On Nov 15th the court ordered the liquidation sale of GSE to satisfy the creditors. It also ordered a Dec 1st hearing to determine if the current owners Bruce Hendry and Glen Nelson will be allowed to bid on the property. It is claimed by the creditors, including Ramsey County, that the owners ran the company into bankruptcy and shouldn't have an ability to bid on the sale of the property.

Star Tribune Lays Court Claim against GSE
Earlier this year GSE took out an ad in the Star Tribune looking for workers, but they never paid for it. Here is a copy of the court filing in a PDF format - File -

GOPHER STATE FILES FOR CHAPTER 11
Aug 10, 2004
Papers filed in the past few days reveal that GSE is in debt to the tune of 32 Million with only a sparse 12 million in assets. In order to stave off creditors and the further siezure of operating cash, the plant has filed for re-organization by the courts. A copy of the filing is available, in a PDF format, at this link - Court Filing -

GOPHER STATE ETHANOL A SECURITY RISK!
July 6th 2004
There is nothing securing the deadly chemicals that are stored on the grounds of GSE. Look at the picture section for shocking up close photo's on a day (one of four) when they left the gates wide open..
GOPHER STATE ETHANOL CEASES OPERATIONS
May 14, 2004 - Due to the high price of corn GSE has decided that they can no longer profitably make ethanol and have ceased production. On Tuesday May 11th they ceased processing of corn and for the following two days completed production of the final batch.
NEW IMPORTANT DOCUMENT
Sustainability of the Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Cycle - Tad W. Patzek, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley, CA First Draft Subject to Corrections and Revisions
College of Engineering, Berkeley, CA - May 12, 2004 -


Contacts
A list of people involved with this site, or of knowledge of the situation with regards to GSE and or Ethanol in general. --- CLICK HERE ---

Current Events
A list of the most current events around GSE. For a detailed listing see the Timeline section --- CLICK HERE ---

Comment and Complaint Board:
  • In this section you can read the comments of others and leave your own comment or complaint about Gopher State Ethanol. Constantly updated with new comments and complaints.
    ---CLICK HERE----

    NEWS SECTION:
  • In this section we have as many articles as we can find about Gopher State Ethanol, Curent listing goes back to 1999
    ---CLICK HERE--- ---

    DOCUMENTS SECTION:
  • Included are Emission Reports, EPA Consent Decree (both initial and final), City Settlement Agreement, MN Dept of Health Reports, and other important documents....
    ---CLICK HERE---

    PICTURES SECTION:
  • In the following page you will find many pictures of the plant spewing forth it's emissions.
    ---CLICK HERE--- -

    TIMELINE:
  • From it's inception through as current as we have it a timeline of Gopher State Ethanol's Operations, Promises, & other information.
    ---CLICK HERE---

    GOOGLE SEARCH:
    You can find alot of information just by hitting this google search link.