Commission OKs 3

The Lincoln County Commission voted last Tuesday to defer, for three years, a request by 3 Rivers Energy Partners to establish general industrial zoning at the corner of Quarter Road north of Winchester Highway within the Urban Growth Boundary. The applicant was requesting only a portion (29.10 acres) of the property west of Quarter Road in Parcel ID 081 010.04 be zoned. The property totals 42.48 acres., according to Lincoln County Planner Kevin Chastine, who is on contract as a consultant with Griggs & Mahoney. However, after several residents voiced concerns during both the public hearing and the regular commission meeting, a motion was made to defer the vote and later amended to defer the vote for three years to give the Commission time to establish a five-year plan for Lincoln County.

The purpose of the request is to establish a facility for storage and distribution for fertilizer for agricultural purposes, according to Chastine, who said Lincoln County Planning and Zoning had recommended approval by the Commission to zone the site.

According to an informational packet put together by 3 Rivers Energy Partners, the company is working with several of the largest grain distillers and ethanol producers in the country, including Jack Daniel’s to reduce their energy usage and waste while creating renewable natural gas and sustainable fertilizer. The property in Lincoln County was requested to be zoned general industrial for fertilizer only. The fertilizer is in liquid form, according to 3 Rivers Energy Partners. However, company representatives said in the future separation of solids may be added to customize the types of fertilizer products.

The proposed fertilizer sites would be lined and covered holding ponds with incorporated leak detection systems to prevent environmental contamination, according to 3 Rivers Energy Partners, who added the ponds are also covered to control the quality of the fertilizer, which has an added benefit of reducing any potential odor. 3 Rivers Energy Partners also said they had flexibility in the design to use trucks, or pipelines to make fertilizer available to multiple farmers. The company said they are asking the Tennessee Department of Transportation for easements on Highway 50 and Highway 64 to temporary lay flat pipe or buried pipe.

During the public hearing, residents voiced concerns about the property’s proximity to the Elk River among other things.

Fayetteville Public Utility General Manager and CEO Britt Dye said his biggest concern is a water treatment plant is located 5.4 miles from the site on Winchester Highway.

Dye said FPU serves approximately 5,000 customers in the city, all of Petersburg, and a big portion of Lincoln County, including Mulberry and Belleview and southern portions of the county when needed. He said FPU can treat 4.5 million gallons of water per day and in fiscal year 2023 FPU treated 840 million gallons. He said the cost to treat a little more than 1,000 gallons is just over $1.

Dye asked several questions during the public hearing. When mentioning he understood there would be a pond on the site, he asked, “What measures will the company take to mitigate the relief from the pond? Can the company give assurance that any overflow or leaching from the pond will not reach the river? Why is the site located so close to the river?”

“Increased nitrogen from the river can pose potential treatment challenges at the water treatment plant,” Dye said. “Extremely high amounts of nitrogen could even shut down the plant for hours, up to days per a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation representative.”

Dye said FPU’s storage is only 4,455,000 gallons. “That will last 1.94 days,” he said. “So, if we can’t pump water we are going to run out of water. Our goal is to provide safe and reliable drinking water to our customers and that’s why I am here.”

Resident Ann Morgan, who lives across the Elk River from the proposed site, said her concerns include water safety, the risk of flammable fertilizer, the impact on air quality and the potential risk of life-altering problems that can happen with fertilizer.

Susan Burroughs, a Kelso resident, said her No. 1 concern is groundwater contamination and possible contamination of the Elk River. She said if the Commission approved the I-1 zoning she has seen nothing that would prevent a plant or something more than a holding pond being installed at the location. She also voiced concerns about what the fertilizer concentration would be and if farmers could even use the liquid fertilizer.

“They say they are going to provide gas and fertilizer to Moore County,” said resident Penny Cash. “How are they going to get it there? Are there going to be a bunch of 18-wheelers coming in and out … hauling slop in, hauling fertilizer out?

“How are they going to get it to Moore County? Pipelines, right? Where are the pipelines going to go? Imminent domain? Whose property are they going to cross?”

“We don’t need this in Lincoln County,” Cash said. “There is no benefit to Lincoln County.”

Spring Brindley, a resident, said she started researching 3 Rivers Energy Partners and, at first, thought it was a great project, but then she got to the end. She said she knows the gas is staying in Moore County, but Lincoln County is getting the residual in the form of fertilizer. She said in her limited agriculture background and extensive conversations with the largest farmers in the area,” if you’re going to spend money on a multi-million-dollar project, you already know who your end user is, and it is not the farmers in Lincoln County.

“The end project is not what we’ve seen in the Planning Commission,” she said before reading from 3 Rivers Energy Partners’ website concerning the case study of Jack Daniel’s Distillery stating information contained “forward-looking information and forward-looking statements.” She read the statements on the website before saying, “So we are being asked to trust our county with forward-looking statements that could change at any point once the land is rezoned?”

Monica Noblin said in her research one of the byproducts of the fertilizer is a washing of hydrogen sulfide. “Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless gas with a strong odor of rotten eggs,” Noblin said. “Exposure to hydrogen sulfide may cause irritation to the eyes and respiratory system. It can also cause apnea, coma, convulsions, dizziness, headaches, weakness, irritability, insomnia, stomach upset. So, these are things that cause me great concern.

“Is our Elk River going to smell like rotten eggs?” she asked.

Lennie Noblin asked if any environmental impact studies had been done and if any operations like this have been done before. He said if those questions have not been asked and those studies have not been completed, then they need to take place before moving forward.

Local attorney John Hill spoke as a resident who has a home on the bank of Elk River. He said he has all the concerns his neighbors have expressed, and he is especially concerned about odor. Hill said in addition to all the concerns mentioned, he said he believes it can’t be done because it is “spot zoning.” Hill said spot zoning is “singling out a parcel of land for use and classification totally different than that of a surrounding area for the benefit of the owner of that property to the detriment of the other area properties.” He said spot zoning is illegal in the state of Tennessee.

John Rogers, a lawyer representing 3 Rivers Energy Partners, said he “respectfully disagrees.” He said it is in an urban growth area and there is industrial zoning within a mile of the area.

Ben Smith, a business owner and resident, is concerned about how the fertilizer will be transported. He also wonders how sustainable a pipeline would be. “In 2009 when there was a pipeline that came from Chicago to Decatur (Alabama) that 3M put in,” he said. “Lightning struck a metal riser over in West Limestone and it leached out into the ground. The farmer that it leached out on didn’t know until he was going to feed his cows and saw a (sic) substance in the water. He never got an answer whether it was OK to sell those cows for us to eat and go all across America. They came and cleaned the water up, but nobody ever got that answer.”

He said he used to farm for more than 12 years, and they spread a bunch of chicken litter across North Alabama. Smith said on a yearly basis ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) would come inspect because they were concerned with run off killing fish. He said ADEM would provide government funds to help stop chicken litter runoff.

“The concern is there and it’s a legitimate concern,” he said. “From here all the way through government, I would like to have an answer before we go to storing a lot of a product we know nothing about.”

Another resident asked what the liner in the holding pond would be made of and how long the liner was going to last.

Ben Towry, owner of Elk River Canoe Rental, said he had a lot of concerns and that he couldn’t forget about the fish. “Smallmouth are thriving in that river, and we don’t want anything to hurt the fish or anything there,” he said, adding there are snails and other endangered fish in the river.

Towry said everyone knows the river floods every winter when the dam is let out. “Where is the pond going to be?” he said. “Is the river going to hit the pond and is that going to bring whatever is in that pond back to river?”

Alan Jones said it makes no sense to truck distillery grains all the way from Lynchburg in Moore County to Kelso and then pour it in a hole right next to the river. He said there are currently no ponds on the land around that area because they won’t hold water. “Everything within a few miles of the Elk River is on limestone,” Jones said. “You try to dig very deep at all and everything is going to go straight through that limestone and probably back into the river. I think it’s just a matter of time before whatever they put in there is going to fail. The question we need to ask ourselves is do we want this five miles upstream from where everybody gets water.”

Another resident asked if the fire departments could handle a possible fertilizer explosion. The resident said in speaking to 3 Rivers Energy Partners representatives, she found out they were looking to build six to 10 sites on Highway 64. She said it’s just the beginning.

During the regular meeting, Brindley and others spoke again to commissioners. “According to Planning and Zoning, this application checks the boxes,” Brindley said. “Well, how about preventing the opening of Pandora’s Box. We do not know enough about this project or the ramifications. Perhaps we need to reevaluate our process and how our boxes are checked. You just approved $50,000 to develop a long-term strategic plan. Use the study, complete the plan and actually use it to make decisions on what is best for Lincoln County …

“We all want growth and advancement for our community, but at the same time a healthy, safe and enjoyable place to live. Lincoln County deserves more than a checked box. Lincoln County deserves more than to be a dumping ground for industrial waste.”

Dye also spoke again saying he talked to TDEC and they haven’t heard of the project. “Why not?” he asked. “The department I talked to yesterday has not heard of this project.”

He said his main question to commissioners is “How important is safe drinking water?”

Marshall Miller, general manager of 3 Rivers Energy Partners, worked to answer questions saying “none of the distillery grains or anything like that is coming to Lincoln County.”

He said all of the process is taking place in Lynchburg right behind Jack Daniel’s. “It goes through an anerobic digestor and through that anerobic digestor – the same thing that your gut goes through – there is a digestate that is fertilizer that is produced,” Marshall said. “High in nitrogen, phosphorus and potash.

“The reason why this site is it had a for sale sign on it when I drove by it talking to farmers that wanted to use it.” Marshall said it was the path they wanted because it’s a farming community and there is a pipeline easement down the highway.

He said short term it would have to be trucked in, but in the long term they are working with TDOT to establish an easement.

He said they are looking at six to 10 other spots and those spots are the next farmers.

“I mean we can’t pump it all in a pipeline in one shot,” Marshall said. “These would be just like a water tank sitting there. They’re lined. They’re covered. There is no smell. We are running a pilot plant right now at Jack Daniel’s producing digestate fertilizer. It has been tested.”

Marshall said there is no plant and there are no tanks. “This is just what we call a holding facility that we can stop here and move on to the next spot,” he said.

Louis Buck of 3 Rivers Energy said TDEC does know about the project from the commissioner down.

Buck said, “the reason they prefer land application of these nutrients is because Elk River and the Mulberry creeks are impaired. They are on the 303(d) list (list of impaired waters.) You can’t put more through a water treatment plant into the rivers. So, we agree with you and the whole intent is to move those nutrients that are ending up in Mulberry Creek now to farmlands. So TDEC is fully supportive as is EPA (Environmental Protection Agency.) Maybe not at the local level. I’m not challenging that.”

The Elk Valley Times reached out to TDEC. Kim Schofinski, deputy communications director for TDEC, emailed saying, “TDEC received a call this week from a Fayetteville Water Operator Mr. Lee Williams, asking if we had any details about this project. To the best of my knowledge, we have not been contacted by Three Rivers Energy about a site in Lincoln County and do not have any further information.”

Buck said they have all the permits and plans and are checking all the boxes.

“So (the) big picture is what you are familiar with in Lynchburg now that is locally called the slop is stillage,” Buck said. “Stillage comes to us, we clean it up to pipeline quality, put it in the pipeline and Jack Daniel’s pulls a lot of it back out. The hydrogen sulfide that was mentioned all happens in Lynchburg. We clean that out of the biogas, and we end up with a sulfur and farmers are buying sulfur now, too. There’s more fertilizer there. In general, the environmental community supports what we are doing compared to all the other options available to Jack Daniel’s for expansion. Right? That’s what it boils down to. Jack Daniel’s is expanding, and they and 3 Rivers are both committed to doing that in a sustainable way. Sustainable means some of that stillage that is currently being fed to cattle goes somewhere else. So, some of that comes to us, not all of it.”

He said Jack Daniel’s would be buying back corn produced with the fertilizer and “it would be one of the largest regenerative agricultural products in the county.”

Buck said they are looking at several routes — one to Franklin County, one to Coffee County and one to Lincoln County.

“Our founders were in the oil and gas business,” he said. “They know how to pump water, they know how to prevent leaks, they can line and cover ponds.”

During the meeting, a motion was made by Commissioner Jack Atchley to defer until written documentation on environmental impact and copies of the accrued permits from TDEC and the EPA, and the history of the process were received or until “we get all the answers.” The motion was second by Commissioner Mary Ann Tackett.

Commissioner Ricky Bryant asked to amend the motion. He said the Commission put quite a bit of money into the idea to come up with a five-year (plan). “So, in accordance with those guidelines I would ask that we amend the motion to defer by adding we defer this motion three years and give us time to come up with a proper plan. Commissioner M Brandon Kolle seconded the motion. Commissioners Steve Guntherberg and Terri Rogers voted no on the amendment.

The commission then voted on the original motion to defer with the amendment of deferring for three years. It was unanimously approved with three commissioners absent including Randy Bradford, Danny Walker and Tori Young.