Biodiesel
plant grows on Evansville
Published
Thursday, August 24, 2006
By Gina Duwe
Gazette Staff
EVANSVILLE-One
phrase echoed around Evansville High School during a community
open house Wednesday afternoon to explain the biodiesel
plant that will be built on the city's east side.
"I've
only heard positive comments."
Company
officials and several residents alike agreed feedback
from the community about its new neighbor has been nearly
all positive.
"People
are curious about emissions-is the plant going to smell?
Is it going to be noisy?" said North Prairie Productions'
Vice President Jeff Pieterick. "I think we've given
adequate answers for that and reassuring answers. Haven't
really heard anything negative."
North
Prairie plans to break ground in early spring on a 45-million-gallon-per-year
biodiesel plant along Union Pacific's railroad east of
County M. The plant is expected to employ 18 to 24 workers
and operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Curious
residents from Evansville and surrounding communities
talked with representatives from North Prairie, Landmark
Services Cooperative, Wisconsin Soybean Programs and other
city leaders. Also on hand were representatives from Foth
& Van Dyke, which is providing the engineering behind
the project, and Boldt Builds, which will construct the
plant.
Artist
renderings of the plant also surprised some by how small
the plant will be.
The
facility is expected to occupy about 12 acres, but much
of it will be filled with storage bins. That includes
two 1-million-gallon tanks to store raw soy oil, two 750,000-gallon
tanks to store biodiesel and many other large above-ground
storage tanks.
Those
tanks allow for about seven days of supply storage and
three to five days of outgoing product storage.
Truck
traffic appears to be the biggest issue the plant will
bring, officials say.
The
soy oil used to make biodiesel will arrive at the plant
mostly via rail at a rate of about 45 rail cars per week,
Pieterick said.
In
the future, the oil could flow through a pipe from a potential
soybean crushing facility, which may be built next to
the plant. Landmark is studying the feasibility of building
the state's first crush facility at that site.
The
finished biodiesel product is expected to leave the plant
on truck and rail. The plant has the potential of sending
56 trucks a day filled with biodiesel east on Highway
14 to Interstate 90/39 in Janesville on to the Chicago
market, Pieterick said.
But
that's only if everything were transported by truck, and
Pieterick expects "quite a bit" to leave by
rail.
The
plant's site currently is in Union Township, but will
be petitioned for annexation.
Many
residents expressed appreciate for the open lines of communication
between the developers and community. Other residents,
like Dennis Haakenson, just stopped by to pick up folders
of information to review at home.
"I
hope it works," Haakenson said, "and comes together
so everyone benefits out of it."
The
players
North Prairie Productions: The Waterloo-based company
was incorporated last year to explore and develop alternative
fuel production. It will buy about 15 acres from Landmark
Services Cooperative in Evansville to build a $42 million
biodiesel plant. North Prairie also will move its offices
to Evansville.
Landmark
Services Cooperative: The member-owned company is Wisconsin's
largest agricultural cooperative, providing agronomy,
energy, feed and grain products and services to crop and
livestock producers throughout southern Wisconsin and
northern Illinois. Landmark's rail terminal on County
M in Evansville is the only shuttle-loading grain facility
in Wisconsin, meaning it can load a 75-car shuttle train
with grain in 12 hours or less.
The
co-op is selling land to North Prairie near the rail terminal
for the biodiesel plant. The co-op also started a feasibility
study on building the state's first soybean crushing facility
next to the biodiesel plant.
Wisconsin
Soybean Marketing Board: The board this month released
a feasibility study showing Wisconsin could support its
first soybean crushing facility that would process 26.4
million bushels per year.
This
week, Bob Carlson, who completed the board's study, started
an Evansville-specific feasibility study for Landmark
to build the crush facility next to the biodiesel plant.
The study is expected to take 20 days, and Landmark will
then decide its next action on building a crush facility.
They
said it
"If anybody still wants to say don't build a biodiesel
plant, and they didn't come, shame on them."-Herb
Hanson, Brooklyn
"I
think it's a great fit. We got to do something the way
gas is."-Peg Berg, Evansville
"I
think they've had nothing but positives all the way through.
It seems like the city's cooperated pretty good. I think
it's a good move for the city."-Doug Albright, Evansville
"It's
a great facility location. I think it's (biodiesel) one
of the best things we have come up with as far as the
environment, income and use of our products here in the
state."-Diane Derr, Marshall
"I
think it's awesome … it will be good for Evansville
and the community."-Clint Pushee, Evansville
"I
think it's a big plus for the agricultural community.
It's a big plus for the general employment of the city.
I've been impressed so far. I feel like they're going
to be a good neighbor."-Rick Cole, Evansville
"We're
a farming community. What other place to put it? We should
have had this stuff a long time ago. This is going to
generate new jobs, and it's in a good spot. It's something
to look forward to."-Linda Guth, Evansville
Copyright
©2006 Bliss Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
Reprinted here with permission.
