Ethanol plant has neighbors worried

MIKE MORRISON | The Times-Union

September 12, 2007 -- JESUP - A quiet rural neighborhood is no place for an ethanol plant.

At least that's what residents of rural Akin Road in southeastern Wayne County told the County Commission at its meeting Monday night in Jesup. More than 50 concerned citizens jammed the small meeting room to get that message across.

"We're talking about industrial growth in a residential neighborhood," Larry Herrington said. "We're not opposed to growth, but it just doesn't fit in on our road."

Akin Road intersects with U.S. 341 about 12 miles southeast of Jesup. Fagen Inc. will build the plant for Atlantic Ethanol LLC on a 350-acre plot at the intersection.

The road is the home to nearly 60 residents, most of whom own 10 to 20 acres, some with fish ponds. They moved there to enjoy a country lifestyle while remaining close to Brunswick and Jesup, residents said.

"It's a very nice place to raise a family," said Kim Smith, who lives on Akin road with her husband, Danny, and daughter, Courtney.

The ethanol plant, Smith said, will destroy the peaceful environment of the community with trains delivering corn several times a week to off-load corn and as many as 50 trucks a day of finished product leaving the plant. The plant will produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a day when it is up and running.

Smith said the residents are concerned about pollution, noise, traffic and the effect the plant's heavy use of water will have on their wells.

Fagen representative Rick Cantor assured the crowd that the ethanol plants his company constructs are low-impact. Wastewater, he said, is not polluted, nor is there significant air pollution. Leftover solids are sold as poultry feed.

Cantor was taken aback by the attitude of the crowd, often openly hostile to commissioners.

"We thought we were doing the environment some good," because ethanol burns much cleaner than gasoline, he said.

County Commissioner Jerry Wright said Wayne County needs new industry. He compared the ethanol plant with the county's biggest employer, the Rayonier pulp mill.

"What about Rayonier?" he asked. "I worked there for 35 years. I got used to it. What would we do without Rayonier?"

Altamaha Riverkeeper James Holland told the County Commission the Altamaha River can't tolerate more heavy industry.

"Every one of you know you have a world-class river out there," Holland said. "We do not need another heavy polluter at the head of tide."

The head of tide, Holland said, is a sensitive area of the river just beyond tidal flow that could be negatively impacted by more industry. The Riverkeeper's biggest concern is the ethanol plant's heavy use of water from the Upper Floridan Aquifer.

It will draw about 1.7 million gallons a day, potentially lessening the amount of water that flows into the Altamaha from springs fed by the aquifer. Some species such as the short-nosed sturgeon need the cool water that flows from the springs to survive and propagate, he said.

Akin Road resident Billie Jo Faulk said after the meeting that she felt the neighborhood had been ambushed.

"There was a story in the local newspaper a year ago that they were thinking about coming here," she said. "They didn't say where, though. We just found out about a month ago that it was going to be in our neighborhood."

Faulk said she was pleased the commissioners heard their complaints.

"It went very well," she said. "We got a lot of questions answered, but we still have a lot more."

The commissioners agreed to consider a request to send an Akin Road resident to an ethanol plant in Iowa for a first-hand look, and to hold other meetings with the residents in a further effort to allay their fears. A contingent of Wayne County officials visited the plant recently and were impressed with its operations.

The County Commission stopped short of saying the project was in jeopardy because of the complaints, however. Atlantic Ethanol has paid a $1 million nonrefundable deposit to Fagen. Preliminary work already has begun on the site. Fagen will begin construction once it finishes another project in Camilla sometime next year.