Follow up to ethanol enriched fuel

To the editor:
    The letter to the editor piece that appeared in the April 8 Times issue was submitted in mid-March for the Times reporters to investigate the issue for our readers that may of be a concern to them. As of this writing there has been no information other than my piece which had a printing/editing error that stated “an amount over 105 will harm or destroy small engines …” which it should have read 10 percent not 105.
    I am a longtime member of www.Mainegasprices.com and have posted a number of information “hot link” there. If you go to the Web site, there is a drop-down box where you can go to the message forum, and from there choose the Maine discussion category, and from there you can scroll the list of topics until you come to the ethanol gas topic, enter the topic, and click on the hyperlinks for the information.
    For those of you who do not have Internet access, there are articles on fuel additives you can use, fuel separators to remove water from fuel lines caused by E-10, and also a test kit you can purchase to check the percentage of ethanol in the gas as there are no government restrictions as yet, on how much exactly is added to the gas.
    I have reports on the overuse of products used to make ethanol. There is a report on an ethanol plant in Florida that uses three gallons of precious fresh water to make every gallon of ethanol. Corn, soybeans, sugarcane, and potatoes are now commonly used to produce ethanol, and a study out to use trees to make it, as if enough trees are not taken out of the eco-system already. There is an article from Cuba’s Castro about the rich Americans buying up all the sugarcane to produce gas for their cars while central Americans can’t buy food with sugar in it, as it has become so expensive.
    We will also feel the brunt of it at home, with increased repairs of our small gas engines and like the weed infestation law that boat owners have to pay an extra $10 every year to combat weeds in our waterways. If you launch a motor boat and there is a weed on the propeller, and if there is a game warden present you will be given a summons. This in all reality will be the case if you are out on the lake and a warden stops to check your fishing license, and happens to notice gas leaking from your motor that the ethanol has eaten through the rubber gaskets into the lake, you will also get a summons for pollution, not to mention the ecological damage to the lake.
    Why would ethanol ever come under the heading of cost saving or a “green” benefit to us?
Lewis Durost Jr.
Houlton