CALDWELL, Idaho—The future of a proposed $60 million food processing plant and ethanol facility near Greenleaf is in doubt after Canyon County commissioners denied a conditional use permit request May 5.
The commission voted 2-1 to uphold a previous decision by planning and zoning commissioners to deny the CUP request for the ethanol portion of the project. No CUP is needed for the other parts of the project, which includes food processing and fertilizer facilities.
Sot Chimonas, chief operations officer of Demeter Bio-Resources, which proposed the project, has told the Capital Press the project would make $26 million worth of purchases annually from Idaho’s farm sector.
He said the facility would use components of barley and a hybrid tuber called a SunSpud to produce healthy food ingredients and renewable products. Starch would be separated to produce ethanol and the facility would also produce organic fertilizer.
Following the commission’s decision, Chimonas said he would have to speak with company stakeholders before deciding whether to continue with the project in Canyon County.
“We’re going to go forward with the project,” he said. “The question is where we are going to go forward with it. There are other options that might take us out of state.”
Commissioner Steve Rule voted in favor of the CUP request and said that Demeter is “coming to us because we advertise ourselves as being ag friendly (and) they’re in the industrial zone we asked industry to locate in.”
“If I fail in this job, I’m going to fail on the side of commerce and industry and I don’t think this is a fail,” he said. “This is a chance to advance ag-related industry in our area.”
Commissioners Craig Hanson and Tom Dale both said they support industry but couldn’t ignore the claims of the dozens of people who testified against the ethanol portion of the project during public hearings.
Dale, who grew up on a cattle ranch and farm in Northern Washington and called himself “a farmer at heart,” said he and several farmers he spoke with were excited about the food processing part of the proposed project.
He said he wasn’t concerned about claims the facility would pollute air and groundwater because state and federal regulations would prevent that.
But he said he couldn’t ignore the concerns of the multitudes who testified that the ethanol facility would negatively impact their properties and change the character of the neighborhood.
Dale said he was opposed to the ethanol portion of the project, “but I’m highly supportive of the rest of it.”
“I’m not opposed to industry coming in,” Hanson said. “But I’m opposed to the ethanol portion (of the project).”
Source: www.capitalpress.com