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HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93011_1633 (2)we've read in the papers and what people are saying. And what I'm going to give you are the facts and you don't have to believe me. You can believe the subject matter experts that we have here. Their resumes are in there so that you can see that they've got over 30 years of experience. And so what I'm talking about tonight is not conjecture at all It is all known quantities One of the members in the community to/dine that we simply do not know what'rgoing to happen with this. Well, we do. Its already being done in adjoining counties I also have a subject matter expert here tonight. His name is Randy Dellinger, and he owns a facility in Caldwell County. He will have an opportunity to come up. We also have someone here from DENR...... Patrick brogan, who will talk about issues of the permits that we'll have to do, and everything like that. So, I'm justgoing to address the things that I need to address and let them address all safety issues, dyking, things like that ... matters about chemical questions and soon. Some of the things that I need to talk about is why...... first of al/ I think the question has been asked Well it's been said it doesn't belong there. Its the first one I want to respond to. This is an agricultural situation. On this very farm, mygrandfather owned this form, and he had a cotton gin. And he also had an alfalfa dehydration plant. They were doing value added along time ago. We are really just following in principle the things we've always done in Iredell County. And we're just continuing that The difference is back then, they didn't have the requirements that we have now and so we have to follow those. But, these are products ....... it's not going to be any bigger then six million gallons We've talked about 20 million in the paper and in other places, but it's not 20 milliongallons. It's six million That's the most my plant can produce ..... our plant and the experts here will testify to that. If we do that, then that keeps things down to a much smaller level In the beginning we may not use anymore than what we can produce on our own form. Probably at least half of what we'll use on the start will come from our crops This will directly benefit us to bring a product to the market that willgive us more value and agriculture. We in agriculture have worked hard for years to try to get closer to the consumer. We've been encouraged to do this by the federal government, and its being done allover the /and It's done everywhere. And we're just trying to follow suit. The benefits, economically, to the community will be fantastic. It's not justgoing to benefit us, itsgoing to benefit our neighbors Our neighbors who are farmers thotgrow crops, if theygrow soybeans and sell them to our processing plant they'll gain 50 cents a bushel by not having to take them to Raleigh. If they buy the soybean mi/1 or cano/a mill they don't have to drive all the way to Raleigh to pick up that mill. So, dairy farmers and poultry farmers can save as much as $12 a ton So, that money a// remains in Iredell County, and if there are any profits that come from this project, and I'll be honest with you, I don't know if this is going to be a profitable business The reason that we've gotten into it is because we are concerned about the future. Are we going to run into a crisis in the future, where we have a disruption in our fuel chain. And we've seen that already just from a hurricane in New Orleans. I do think this isgoing to happen more and more in the future. This country is not very loved in the world, and our Achilles heel is petroleum. They've got us over a barrel, so to speak I think someday we're going to see some realproblems because of that. If we have a biodiesel facility in Iredell County, and those disruptions occur, then there's an opportunity for us to be able to continue because we're producing biodiese/at that facility. So, it's a security issue more than its a profit issue, and that's why our family wanted to get into it And everybody in the community, if there's a problem like that, we would be glad to help our neighbors out if they got into a crunch like that. So that's one of the other reasons. Another big issue that comes up is truck traffic. We�-egoing to add 26 trucks to the road if we go completely to 6 million gallons ..... that includes the processing part, and the biodiese/ part. Twenty-six loads means 13 coming in and 13 going out. And there's just less than 700 already now so that's not a big issue. Some of the other issues we need to talk about are the safety issues Bryan Leach (opponent) (Shared PowerPoint slides as he spoke.) I live adjacent to the proposed location on Snow Creek for the biodiese/ plant, and yes, I'm against it. I would just like to show some slides hereon where we live and make some comments on what Mr McLain has stated. This is Snow Creek Road, and I'm just trying to figure out what part of M-2 fits into R-20 I really don't think that heavy manufacturing district shou/dgo into a single family residential district that we have as a community out there. I don't know if youre familiar with Snow Creek but here's an aerial photo of what Snow Creek looks like now. The arrow is the proposed location for it to go there. This is the industrial park in Statesville. This is whereI think it should be with the rest of industry. It's abetter fit there, the fire department is better to handle it there. The truck traffic is already there. The roads are therefor everything. Mr McLain, is stating that they can produce 6 millions I figured at 3,744,O00gallons that it would take 936 tractor trailer loads That's 18 trucks a week. I can't give you hard statistics coming in and out because I don't know his byproducts coming in. Don't know where it's going to go, whose going to get it. If its farmers coming to get it, but I can tell you the traffic on Snow Creek Road is going to go up at least 40 to 60%. I see a number of trucks now, but the number of trucks to be added will begreatly increased This is a picture of the plant that's there now that came out of the newspaper. The entrance in the proposed location right now that they have is the entrance driveway on the top of the hill beside my driveway on Snow Creek Road But before you get there, there is a blind curve to the entrance that you can't see at all You come around that curve and you have less than 290 feet before youget to my driveway This is the driveway for the location. The entrance now.......... there's the proposed location at 100 feet away from the existing entrance. In this next picture, it will show you all three driveways. Mine is the 956 Snow Creek driveway The McLain farm entrance now is directly beside mine or 2700 feet away, and the proposed entrance is 100 feet away This is coming from the other direction on Snow Creek. You cart t even see the proposed location for the driveway. Would you like your child waiting on a bus in all that traffic. This is my son standing beside the road This will be a school bus stop for my kid to go to school and all this diesel fuel and methane coming by everyday. This is the 8mcges'residence which is the neighbor in the curve. This is what their view is from their front yard from Snow Creek Road to show a proximity to where theplant would