The delay of a planned 100 million gallon ethanol plant in Jamestown's energy park is not the only bump in the road for North Dakota's ethanol industry in the past year.

South Dakota-based VeraSun Energy Corp. late last month said it would delay startup of a 100 million gallon a year ethanol plant at Hankinson, in southeastern North Dakota, citing "current volatility in the market." The company did not say when the plant might begin producing fuel. Earlier, VeraSun put two other ethanol projects on hold, in Welcome, Minn., and Hartley, Iowa.

The Alchem Ltd. ethanol plant in Grafton, which opened in 1983 and produced more than 10 million gallons of ethanol a year, suspended operations last October. Harold Newman, Alchem's president, at the time cited the high cost of corn and low prices for ethanol.

Newman announced this week that a 100 million gallon ethanol plant in the Spiritwood Energy Park near Jamestown is on hold.

Neither Newman nor Grafton plant officials returned calls seeking comment Tuesday. The Renewable Fuels Association does not include the Grafton plant on its list of U.S. ethanol plants, and Grafton Mayor Todd Burianek and City Administrator Mylo Einarson said the plant remains shut down.

"We still have hopes that they will resume operations, based on what I understand to be significant work out there" at the plant, Burianek said.

Renewable Fuels Association spokesman Matt Hartwig said ethanol plant developers who have not yet begun building, as in the case of the Jamestown plant, are more apt to suspend their plans, especially if they do not have all their financing in place.

"In this climate, not only the marketplace for ethanol, but the credit crunch … makes it more difficult for Americans to buy a car, much less build a multimillion dollar ethanol plant," he said.

Besides the high price of corn, developers of the Jamestown plant cited the lack of an adequate water supply.

Hartwig said finding a water source large enough to support an ethanol plant is not as big of a headache as it once was. With advances in technology, water use at ethanol plants fell more than 25 percent between 2001 and 2007, he said.

"The plants themselves are becoming more efficient," Hartwig said. "It takes three gallons of water per gallon of ethanol. That's comparable to gas refining."

The 110 million gallon a year Tharaldson Ethanol Plant under construction in Casselton will use wastewater that Fargo's treatment plant normally discharges into the Red River. Construction started in June 2007, with plans to open in December of this year.

Hartwig said projects such as the Tharaldson plant are part of "the next evolution of the industry."

North Dakota has three other ethanol plants - in Richardton, Underwood and Walhalla - that together have the capacity to produce about 125 million gallons of the fuel annually. The Richardton and Underwood plants began operating within the past two years.

The United States has 161 ethanol refineries, seven of which are expanding, with 42 more under construction, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. Hartwig said the group does not keep statistics on how many ethanol projects around the country have been put on hold but, "it's not a widespread epidemic."