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South Dakota

Located in the Great Plains region of the United States, South Dakota is named after the Lakota, part of a confederation of Sioux tribes, who were originally known as the Dakota. Pierre is the state capital, while Sioux Falls is the largest city, with a population nearing 160,000. The state is divided by the Missouri River into two halves with their own geographic and social identity, known to South Dakotans as East River and West River. eastern South Dakota has the greater population and is a fertile growing region, while western South Dakota has a ranching agriculture and an economy driven by tourism and defense spending (Ellsworth Air Force Base, near Rapid City, is the state's second-largest employer). The Black Hills, in the southwest, are a group of pine-covered mountains of major religious significance to Native Americans and the location of Mount Rushmore. Other natural and historic attractions in the southwest include Badlands Wilderness and Wind Cave National Parks, Custer State Park, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and Deadwood, a National Historic Landmark District.

The Sioux were the dominant inhabitants until the late-19th-century Black Hills gold rush and the arrival of the railroad in the east, events that triggered several Indian wars. Following the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of the 1930s, the state's fortunes were reversed when the war effort required South Dakota's agricultural and industrial products. Federal spending was sustained throughout the 1940s and 1950s against a background of continued agricultural change. Historically, South Dakota has had an agricultural economy with an attendant rural lifestyle, having the fifth-lowest population density and total state output in the United States. In the early 21st century, the service industry is the largest contributor to the South Dakotan economy.

Statistics and Rankings

The 16th Nationwide Survey of MSW Management in the United States found that, in 2006, South Dakota had an estimated 988,433 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation, placing it 47th in a survey of the 50 states and the capital district. Based on the 2006 population of 788,467, an estimated 1.09 tons of MSW were generated per person per year (ranking joint 38th). South Dakota landfilled 778,100 tons (ranking 44th) in the state's 15 landfills, and it was ranked 27th out of 44 respondent states for number of landfills. There was no data reported for import and export of waste. South Dakota has no waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities. It recycled 83,476 tons of MSW, placing South Dakota 46th in the ranking of recycled MSW tonnage. In 2006, South Dakota was increasing its landfill capacity, the volume of which was not reported. Yard waste, whole tires, used oil, lead-acid batteries, and white goods were banned from the state's landfills. Tipping fees across South Dakota were an average $35 per ton, where the cheapest and most expensive average landfill fees in the United States were $15 and $96, respectively.

POET

South Dakota is home to POET LLC, a biofuel company specializing in bioethanol, headquartered in Sioux Falls, and it is one of the biggest success stories in renewable energy. The Renewable Fuels Association named POET the largest U.S. producer of ethanol (1.1 billion gallons per year). In 2007, POET adopted its new name, which is not an acronym, as commonly thought, but a word chosen to represent the company. Prior to 2007, the company was generally known as Broin, although the different divisions had their own names. The Broin family farm in Wanamingo, Minnesota, was the site of their first experiments in small-scale ethanol manufacture in 1983. In 1987, when the operation reached the commercial stage, they relocated to a foreclosed ethanol plant in Scotland, South Dakota, which would later become the company's flagship for the latest refining research and pilot projects.

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