Waste-to-Ethanol Plant Plan Questioned

BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production, Marketing/Market Forces and Sales, Not Agriculture

February 17, 2010

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by Diane Krieger Spivak (Post-Tribune) Lake County (Indiana) Solid Waste Management Commission chief Jeff Langbehn defended a planned $256 million bioethanol plant Friday before the Lake County Advancement Committee.

…Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez questioned whether the expense of the plant, which is slated to process 10,000 tons of Lake County municipal garbage a day, would eventually fall on taxpayers.

…With 12 acres under one roof, it would be located on 285 acres in Schneider, Langbehn said, on property the town recently annexed specifically for the plant. Schneider was the only municipality that accepted the plant with open arms. The town stands to make $17 million to $20 million a year for the next 20 years from royalties and taxes.

Langbehn said the plant, which he touted as 90 percent efficient, would produce no discharge and would take no water from the river, nor discharge into the river.

…Langbehn said the county, which voted not to build any more landfills, is getting a bargain on the plant by paying a tipping fee of only $17.25 a ton compared to the $45 a ton it pays to Republic, formerly Allied Waste, to take the county’s garbage to the Newton County Landfill.

…The county’s recycling program would stay in place, and any metal or glass coming into the plant would be sorted and removed for recycling. Any hazardous waste products that might come through in municipal household waste would also be removed. READ MORE and MORE

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