Biodiesel plant gets thumbs up
Commissioners vote next
Rezoning for a proposed biodiesel plant near County Line Landfill and Tiosa was approved Tuesday.

The Fulton County Plan Commission voted 8-4 in favor of rezoning 32 acres of land southwest of Indiana 110 and County Road 200 East to industrial. It is presently agricultural. Commissioners must approve the rezoning. They will probably consider it at their March 17 meeting. Green Fuels LLC requested the zoning change. The property is owned by Jimmy and Suzanne Swan, who will live in their home two more years. A piece of land including the home keeps its agricultural zoning.

There are nine special conditions to the rezoning. They were enacted to address neighbor and safety concerns. They are:
• Install a passing blister on Indiana 110, where the main plant entrance will be.
• Trucks are to enter from Indiana 110 and vehicles from County Road 200 East.
• Truck traffic is not allowed between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m.
• Outside, overhead lights are to be off between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m.
• Excessive odor or particulate from the plant will not be allowed.
• Excessive noise from the plant will not be allowed.
• The county has the right to enforce the conditions through its zoning laws.
• The company must give right-of-way land to the county if needed.
• Any other businesses on the property must be reviewed by the technical review committee and fit in the agricultural setting.

Some residents of the immediate area favored the change; some did not.

"I can see why they'd want to put a grease plant by the landfill," said Rick Wyatt, who lives on Old U.S. 31. "It will deteriorate the neighborhood out there."

By saying grease plant, he was referring to what's called white grease. The company will use white grease - which is preprocessed and rendered animal fat - as the feed stock for the biodiesel, said Len D. Robinson, Indianapolis, the Green Fuels attorney and a board member. It also will use various other feed stock such as soy oil, palm oil and canola oil, depending on the asking price for those commodities.

The biodiesel refinery would operate around the clock and produce 10 million gallons of fuel per year to start and employ eight people at $15 or more per hour.

A planned second phase would double plant capacity and jobs, Fulton Economic Development Director Shane Blair said.

Green Fuels board member Daniel Tracy called the refinery innocuous. It is a closed system. It does not use water. Emissions from the stack would mostly be steam from heating. Vapors are collected and reused, he said. Any odor would be in the laboratory or maybe from filling a tank, Tracy said. Ion resins, used to replace water in the manufacturing process, are changed every 250,000 gallons of production, Tracy said. They are considered hazardous waste.

Methyl alcohol is used. It would be in a dyked system, Tracy said. Plan commission member Rex Robison was concerned about flammable product stored in above-ground tanks. He wanted a special use of refinery added to the county's industrial zoning parameters.

Neighbors were concerned about proximity.

Plan Director Casi Cramer said five homes are within an eighth of one mile from the property.

Roger Johnson said he's concerned about the traffic, the train traffic associated with the refinery and about his property values. "You're invading my home, my family, he said.

Dan Sullivan lives across Indiana 110. He said neighbors were invited to tour a biodiesel plant, then the offer was withdrawn. He asked how odor would be measured and how it would be determined if it was too strong.

Michael Steffen, director of Potawatomi Wildlife Park, which is off Indiana 331 near Tippecanoe, told the plan commission he was concerned about the light the plant would emit.

The park is a certified dark sky zone for star-gazers and attracts plenty of astronomy buffs not only from neighboring counties, but states, Steffen said.

Karen Fouts spoke in favor of the plant. "Don't do to the biodiesel what you did to the ethanol folks," she said. "The runaround is unnecessary. It cost people jobs that we need in Fulton County."