Ohio: Biomass Fined for Slow Tobacco Removal

Source from:  By DAVID E. MALLOY - The Herald-Dispatch 06/28/2004

Biomass Energy has been fined $26,000 for being slow to respond to an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency order last year to remove more than 10,000 tons of surplus United States Department of Agriculture tobacco. The company, which is planning to build a $150 million electric generating plant at the former South Point Ethanol site, has signed a consent agreement with the Ohio Attorney General's office, company and state officials said Friday. The state filed suit in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court earlier this week seeking damages of more than $25,000 in the case. As part of the consent decree, Biomass also agreed to begin removal of all coal/coke waste located on the property within a year and to have it removed within a year and a-half and a month later submit documentation to the Ohio EPA verifying that the material was disposed of in a licensed solid waste facility. "It's been settled," Mark Harris, Biomass chief executive officer, said Friday of the state''s administrative proceedings against the company. "We paid a minimum fine. They wanted (the tobacco) moved. We couldn't get enough trucks (to meet the deadline). It was impossible. It's all gone now. There was no environmental damage to the ground." The legal action won't have any impact on the company's plans to build an electric generating plant that burns wood and wood waste at the 80-plus acre site, Harris said. "We're still on track to start construction in late fall," he said. Harris said earlier the plant would be the cleanest, solid fuel biomass plant in the country. If it's built, the plant would employ about 50 people full-time and create some 250 to 400 construction jobs, Harris said. The plant could be operational by the summer of 2006. The plant would buy sawdust and wood chips from sawmills within an 80-mile radius. "That wasn't much of a fine," said South Point Mayor Bill Gaskin. "It showed they were wrong. At least they made them do something. I'm glad it's over. Now I hope they get started bringing in jobs." The company signed a contract more than a year ago with the USDA to destroy 121,448 pounds of surplus tobacco for $2.3 million. Only about 10,000 tons of tobacco were delivered before the Ohio EPA asked for the shipments to be stopped because Biomass isn't licensed to take solid waste. The agency gave Biomass 60 days, until Aug. 1, 2003, to remove the tobacco. The company also was ordered to temporarily cover the tobacco piles and clean up the leachate (water runoff from the tobacco) and show documentation that had been done. Biomass wasn't able to get the tobacco removed until October of last year. The suit filed Monday by Attorney General Jim Petro's office said the company could face civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day. Enditem