Ethanol plant plans dropped

Other agricultural uses explored for the Indian Orchard site

By TOM KANE

TEXAS TOWNSHIP, PA — Plans for the construction of an ethanol plant, which was to be located on the western shore of the Lackawaxen River in Indian Orchard, have been dropped.

The enthusiasm for the plant rode on a surge of interest for corn ethanol that swept the country a few years ago. Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell talked about allocating a large amount of money behind the development of such plants.

But experts in the United States, and many other nations, questioned whether ethanol from corn would do more harm than good, since it would raise the price of corn exponentially, thus putting corn, a chief source of food, out of reach of the poor in developing nations.

The Financial Times of London recently quoted Peter Voser, president of Royal Dutch Shell Oil, who said that ethanol from corn contributes to food-price inflation and actually causes higher emissions of CO2 than oil. Shell and other oil companies want to promote ethanol from other sources than corn, like switch grass and wood chips. However, the technology to produce ethanol from these products is years away, according to experts.

The decision to drop the ethanol plant has not impeded the optimism of Dave Williams, one of the main proponents of the plant, who is also the president of Indian Orchard Renewable Energy, LLC (IORE), which owns the property where the plant was planned. Williams is heading up an effort to use the 88.7 acre site for several economic development projects that would increase jobs in Wayne County.

‘The financing just wasn’t there since the economy has turned around,” Williams said. “We are looking for other business ventures and for jobs that would result from new plans at the site.”

Today, economic development demands that planners be more diversified, he said.

Agriculture-based businesses

“We’re definitely going to aim at some kind of agriculture venture, things like the manufacturing of solar panels, wind mills, even making pellets for heating homes. We’re open to a number of things,” he said.

A real possibility is to develop the site as a railroad transfer station on the Stourbridge Railroad Line that is being developed for industry in White Mills.

“You need a lot of acreage along a railroad line in order to have a transfer station,” Williams said. “We have that at this proposed site.”

The proposed railroad site is only 15 miles away from the planned Sterling Business Park, which is moving closer to completion. “Trucks could take merchandise from the railroad siding and bring it to the park,” he said.

Williams said the site eventually would need a bridge across the Lackawaxen River along Route 6. “We have a 50-feet right-a-way along there beside the Koss Tire Company,” he said. “It would take about three years to complete a bridge, meanwhile, we could use the road along the railroad tracks.”

The property stretches along Route 6 behind Pizza Hut to Rusty Palmer’s new facility near Route 652. The former owner of the site, Bill Pykus, sold gas-drilling rights on the site to Chesapeake Appalachia Company. When the property was sold to IORE, the gas lease went with it, according to Williams.

“The creation of jobs for our people is the key reason for developing this site,” Williams said. “That’s been our aim all along.”