Developer may take ethanol plant to South Carolina

By Mike Saewitz
The Virginian-Pilot

CHESAPEAKE

Now that the City Council has rejected an ethanol plant proposal, officials with International Bio Energy Virginia LLC said Wednesday they will try to build a similarly large plant in an industrial area near the Savannah River in South Carolina.

Sidney M. Harrison, the firm’s managing partner, blamed the Chesapeake project’s failure on disinformation spread by nearby residents and consultants hired by the city of Portsmouth, which opposed the plant.

“I feel sorry for Chesapeake,” Harrison said Wednesday afternoon. “This plant was a wonderful opportunity to create an image for Chesapeake and bring an incredible amount of business to the city.”

Harrison’s company, based in Chester, outside Richmond, owns the 97-acre Chesapeake property . The tract, which the city has sought for years to be developed, is zoned for heavy industry. Harrison said he will explore options for developing or selling it .

Even as they voted 7-2 to

reject the controversial proposal around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, City Council members cautioned that the property eventually will be developed – possibly without permission being required.

For example, city documents show that a developer could build an array of things there without having to seek a conditional-use permit – a textile or grain mill or other such uses as dairy product processing, plastic products and kennels.

Councilwoman Patricia Willis, one of two people who supported the ethanol plant, said Wednesday she thought it would have been a good option .

“There’s no plant that’s going to be perfect,” Willis said. “They had double, triple, protections from sound and emissions.”

The only other support vote was from Mayor Dalton Edge, who argued that the United States needed to do something to cut its fuel reliance on the Middle East.

The plant would have been one of the country’s biggest, producing more than 200 million gallons of ethanol each year.

More than 100 people spoke about the plant Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. The council’s vote followed more than five hours of public comment. While some council members were still exhausted from the late evening, they tried to reflect Wednesday on exactly why they couldn’t support the ethanol plant.

Councilman C.E. “Cliff” Hayes Jr., who made the motion to deny the proposal, said he was moved by the testimony of residents of Portsmouth’s Cradock area and Chesapeake’s Brent­wood neighborhood .

“Ninety-eight percent of the folks most impacted were against it,” Hayes said Wednesday. “I feel like we’re elected to represent the people.”

Hayes also was put off by the project after a consultant failed to give him information about a computer modeling system that could have allowed the city to measure emissions and odor levels.

And he said he was worried about creating a bad-smelling land­mark like International Paper’s Franklin Mill .

“All I could think about is, five years from now, folks are riding down Interstate 464, and all they can smell is that smell of ethanol,” Hayes said.

Hayes acknowledged that he received some e-mails Wednesday from members of the business community disappointed in his decision.

Business leaders pleaded with the council Tuesday to approve a $400 million project that would bring as much as $4 million in annual tax revenue to Chesapeake.

The council also heard from residents craving the plant’s 150 promised jobs.

“Please don’t let this project slip through our hands,” said Chesapeake’s Rodney Wilkins, a former NOVA Chemicals worker who was hoping to get a job at the ethanol plant.

Harrison said he intends to explore his options .

“I am the property owner.

I do have rights,” Harrison said. “I will not be trampled on down there.”

He said it is too early to say what he’ll do on the land. “I planned on putting an ethanol plant there.”

In impassioned speeches , residents of Cradock and Brentwood begged the council to turn down the ethanol plant because it would bring new air emissions and traffic.

“I’m thrilled,” Chesapeake’s Joan Mercer said after the vote. She was one of the residents who led the battle against the plant. “I’m going to have a happy Thanksgiving and a good night’s sleep.”

Developer Harrison said he and other representatives tried to inform the neighbors about the facts of the project. In return, he said, they treated him disrespectfully and presented lies to the council.

“I got rudeness beyond belief,” Harrison said.

He hopes that a site in a purely industrial area off the Savannah River wouldn’t have the same neighborhood friction that doomed the Chesapeake project.

“People are miles away, and the whole works,” Harrison said. “I did the best I could for Chesapeake. If they don’t want it, I’ve got somebody that wants it.”

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207,

mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com