Ethanol Plant Plan Fires Up Opponents
Aug. 7–A proposed ethanol plant in Franklin County has generated its own version of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Those who support it believe the plant will help the local economy and contribute to the nation’s efforts to conserve fossil fuels.
Those who oppose it fear the plant will be an environmental hazard that will contribute nothing to the need to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.
The division is clear. The battle is drawn. The outcome is uncertain.
And right now, the issue is stalled.
That’s because the Franklin County Court has halted any action on the project’s land-development plan.
Penn-Mar Ethanol LLC has proposed the ethanol plant on 55 acres in Greene Twp. near the Letterkenny Army Depot. It says the plant will generate about 50 million to 60 million gallons of ethanol a year out of corn.
Opponents believe the plant will generate a lot more than ethanol. They contend ethanol plants generate noxious odors, excessive noise, air pollution and, if there is a fire, “caustic fumes,” according to Chambersburg attorney Frederic G. Antoun Jr. He is representing Citizens for a Quality Environment and 10 individuals challenging the Penn-Mar project.
In addition, opponents contend ethanol does nothing to improve the nation’s fuel conservation efforts, Antoun said.
“It is not environmentally friendly,” he said. “It doesn’t reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
A recent study conducted by David Pimentel of Cornell University and Tad W. Patzek of the University of California at Berkeley found that the production of ethanol from corn uses more fossil fuel than it replaces. Ethanol is used as a fuel additive to gasoline.
“Ethanol production in the United States does not benefit the nation’s energy security, its agriculture, the economy or the environment,” the authors wrote in their January report. “Also, ethical questions are raised by diverting land and precious food into fuel and actually adding a net amount of pollution to the environment.”
Supporters of ethanol contend the authors have been challenged by other researchers.
Scott Welsh, project manager for the Penn-Mar plant, said a majority of studies have shown that ethanol has a “positive energy balance.” He said Pimentel and Patzek are “clearly in the minority on that issue.”
The use of ethanol has been encouraged in the recent energy bill approved by Congress and awaiting President Bush’s expected signature. The energy bill mandates that 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol be added to gasoline by the year 2012. That figure is double current use.
“I think it’s good,” Welsh said of the energy bill’s ethanol requirement. “It recognizes our need as a nation to reduce our use of petroleum and to support alternatives.”
He said the bill will help the ethanol industry by giving “it some stability that can help it grow on its own.”
Opponents, however, believe the requirement is simply another government prop for the corn industry.
Antoun, who says his clients aren’t exactly tree huggers, don’t appreciate a government mandate for ethanol “when studies say it doesn’t reduce pollution.
“Where does it stop?”
Earlier this year, Franklin County became the center of attention for the Penn-Mar plant. Formed by 13 farmers from south-central Pennsylvania and central Maryland, the company initially set its sights for a facility in Conoy Twp. in Lancaster County.
To build a plant there, Penn-Mar needed a conditional-use approval from the supervisors, Antoun said. After a number of contentious hearings, Penn-Mar shifted its sights to Franklin County.
Penn-Mar said the opposition in Lancaster County was not the reason for the change. Franklin County always was viewed as a possible site for the plant, Welsh said. The company had become concerned about the topography of its Conoy Twp. site and the possible construction cost of its plant.
Antoun is more suspicious of the location shift.
He said the change is likely due to Greene Twp.’s view that an ethanol plant is a permitted use in the heavy industrial zone where the plant would be located at the Cumberland Valley Business Park.
The township’s Zoning Hearing Board ruled in late May that the plant was a permitted use. It also granted variances to the 45-foot height restrictions for a number of buildings — grain elevators and storage facilities and the like — that would be on the site.
Antoun appealed on behalf of the Citizens for A Quality Environment and the 10 individuals and asked Franklin County Court to postpone township action on land-development plans while the appeal is pending. A stay on proceedings was issued by Franklin County Judge Richard H. Walsh on June 16.
“I don’t file frivolous cases,” Antoun said. He said the height variance is “just insupportable.”
He added that the ethanol plant is not a permitted use in the heavy industrial zoning district and hearings should be held by the supervisors. Antoun said the township solicitor determined the plant was a permitted use as a large-scale manufacturer, even though such facilities are not specifically listed in the zoning ordinance.
“We’re saying distilling is not manufacturing,” he said.
Welsh said the company will prevail.
“We feel the Zoning Hearing Board did act appropriately,” he said.
Penn-Mar has asked Judge Walsh to lift his restriction and allow the project to proceed.
Antoun believes the stay is justified because, without it, the township could approve land-development plans and construction could start while the appeal is pending with the court.
The Citizens for a Quality Environment was organized and registered with the state before Penn-Mar’s plan was proposed earlier this year, Antoun said. The ethanol project became an “instant pressing issue” with the group, which has obtained more than 1,700 signatures from people opposed to the plant, he added.
A “certain amount of opposition” was expected, Welsh said. “We feel the concerns can be and will be effectively addressed. We acknowledge that there are issues we need to pay attention to. We intend to be a good neighbor.”
Antoun said his clients have a number of concerns, citing the performance of other ethanol plants around the country.
The Penn-Mar plant will be the first ethanol plant in Pennsylvania and the Northeast, Welsh said.
Antoun said there have been “lots of enforcement actions” against other ethanol plants over air and water emissions. “It’s a young industry,” he said. “It’s still under development.”
He added that the Penn-Mar project intends to use 800,000 gallons of water a day. “It’s an outstanding amount of water.”
He also said a fire, explosion or spill would require an immediate evacuation within a 2 1/2 mile radius.
In exchange for all these concerns, he said, the Penn-Mar plant will provide “35 mediocre jobs … There’s all this downside and there’s no upside.”
Welsh said the plant will have 35 to 40 jobs, and an additional 20 will be generated through distribution. Local corn growers will benefit from the additional market to sell corn and through the distiller’s grain byproduct that can be used to feed livestock, he added.
Penn-Mar expects to buy approximately 25 percent of its corn from local farmers, and the rest will come by rail from the Midwest.
“I believe this is a logical place for the ethanol plant to be located,” said John Van Horn, executive director of the Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority that has agreed to sell the 55 acres to Penn-Mar for $2.24 million. “I’m still hoping that the project will move forward.”
The business park is part of what was considered excess land at the Letterkenny Army Depot. The park has received about 1,000 acres to develop. So far, more than 40 companies have set up shop, Van Horn said.
Welsh hopes Penn-Mar can add to the mix. He said it would take 12-14 months to construct the plant.
Besides township approval, Welsh said, Penn-Mar needs various permits from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to develop the plant.
Antoun said his clients are challenging various aspects of those DEP applications.
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