Court Appeal of Onida Ethanol Plant Not Slowing Plans as Construction to Start

by Stephen Lee (Capital Journal) An attorney for a handful of Onida residents opposing the siting of a proposed new ethanol plant just outside of Onida argued in court Monday that Sully County leaders improperly gave the plant a special use permit.

Monday’s court appeal was a sort of latter-day effort to stop the plant from being built about a quarter-mile southeast of this town of 675. Onida is about 30 miles northeast of Pierre.

And although a judge said he hadn’t decided yet about the arguments, the hearing was not stopping the plant’s owners.

About 40 people filled the room for the hour-long hearing, including Walt Wendland, the president and CEO of Ringneck Energy.

Wendland said the plan is to get the plant built and operating by the spring of 2017, producing 70 million gallons of ethanol a year from about 25 million bushels of corn.

The zoning permission given by Sully County to Ringneck Energy this summer to build the plant was referred to a county-wide vote and 78 percent of voters approved the plant.

But a handful of people who live just outside the city limits next to where the plant is planned hired attorney Adam Altman to stop it in court because they say it’s unsafe and bothersome so close to their homes.

The main purpose of the ethanol plant obviously is to process farm crops, not to store ethanol or dispatch trucks, Hieb (Jack Hieb, hired to represent the county’s Board of Adjustment) told Judge Brown. Any grain elevator – such as the two big ones in Onida - also has fuel storage tanks and truck terminal facilities and rail sidings, Hieb said. But such ag businesses aren’t considered an industrial style operation requiring industrial zoning, Hieb said. READ MORE / MORE / MORE