Farmer co-op buys land for ethanol plant
11/14/2005
Property located in Cainsville industrial park
BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD
The chances that a Brant County farmer-led co-operative will relocate the site of its proposed $86 million ethanol plant to Cainsville from the city’s northwest are becoming more certain after it bough land there.
Integrated Grain Processors Co-operative announced Friday afternoon that it has acquired a 54-acre property from King & Benton Development Corp. on the south side of Old Onondaga Road in the Cainsville industrial park, just over the county line.
According to the deal, IGPC will swap a 48-acre parcel it earlier bought from King & Benton in its Oak Park North business park in the city’s northwest for the Cainsville property, and the developer will pay a relocation compensation package to assist in the move.
The sale closes on Jan.15. It’s conditional on IGPC and King & Benton completing due diligence on the property, including a rezoning of the land.
“We’re excited at the prospect of building our ethanol plant in Cainsville,” IGPC chairman Tom Cox said Friday.
Cox noted the Cainsville site offers excellent rail access with a line running right through the property, proximity to Highway 403’s Garden Avenue ramp, and level ground ideally suited for the $86-million plant the co-op has been working to build for the past three years.
“I’m pleased that IGPC has acknowledged there may be a tremendous amount of benefit in choosing this location,” said Steve Charest, president of King & Benton.
“It was a difficult decision for IGPC and King & Benton, but sometimes it takes difficult decisions to make projects better.”
If successful, the move is bound to raise resistance from residents in nearby subdivisions and on country roads who are not accustomed to the sudden prospect of a major ethanol plant landing in their neighbourhood.
They’re concerned about odours from the process of distilling ethanol from corn and higher traffic on roads in the area. But environmentalist would be relieved that the plant would be on municipal water in Cainsville, rather than drawing water from an aquifer in the northwest. IGPC first decided on Oak Park North during a search of prospective sights in the area three years ago. One of the shortcomings was the lack of municipal water.
After extensive testing, the co-op acquired a permit from the Ministry of the Environment to take 1,410 litres of water per minute from the lowest of three aquifers running through the northwest.
But, despite assurance from scientists that drawing that volume of water would not harm the aquifer, continuing concern about the aquifer by environmentalists, a growing number of city councillors and King & Benton, led company president Steve Charest to put together a plan for another suitable property.
The move would also free up the land in Oak Park North for even bigger industrial concerns that Charest is working to attract.
In Cainsville, the plant would be on municipal water, which environmentalists and city councillors prefer.
Industrial park users get their water through an arrangement in which the city sells it to the county at twice the going rate, then county sells it to the users at a subsidized rate.
But because an ethanol plant uses a lot of water, officials from the city, the county, King & Benton and IGPC are close to concluding on a deal on a special arrangement that will allow the coop to be charged its water at a special direct rate that will avoid the expensive purchase and subsidy route.
“From a long-term environmental stance the Cainsville site is a lot more appropriate location,” said Coun. Marguerite Ceschi-Smith, chairwomen of the environmental watchdog group Northwest Gateway Committee, which early on expressed concerns about the aquifer option.
Still, IGPC and King & Benton have some important hurdles to clear, including the rezoning, which could present a flashpoint between IGPC and the neighbours.
A public hearing on the rezoning is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. in county council chambers in Paris.
A recently formed group, Concerned Citizens Against Rezoning for Ethanol, plans to air its views at the meeting.
Cox said he’s looking forward to speaking with residents directly about the ethanol plant.
“As members of the greater Brantford area ourselves, we certainly understand our future neighbours want to know more about who is moving in next door,” he said.
“We believe that we’ll be good neighbours and certainly want to hear from anyone who is concerned about what impact our plant might have on their community.”
