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Officials look toward ethanol plant
BENTON -- After touring an operating ethanol plant, Scott County commissioners are looking forward to having some in Scott County.
Commissioners discussed their Wednesday visit to an ethanol plant in Saline County, located in central Missouri, during their regular meeting Thursday.
"We had a real good tour yesterday in Malta Bend," said Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger. "If anyone had any reservations about an ethanol plant not being a good corporate neighbor or being OK for the environment in the area, it cleared those up yesterday during the tour."
The trip, which included a dozen officials from Scott County, Cape Girardeau County, Cape Girardeau and the SEMO Port Authority, was hosted by a group considering Scott County as a possible site to locate a 50 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Scott County, according to County Developer Joel Evans.
Evans said in speaking with those on the tour, he learned many "anticipated seeing a complex chemical factory ... a smoke-belching goliath rising from the Saline County cornfields. They were surprised to find a clean and compact facility with no obvious emissions. ... I think a lot of people were surprised to see a small, simple process -- basically a grain elevator and a distillery. A very modern facility, very clean."
Burger said he was impressed by the size of the facility.
"I expected it to be much bigger. I was really surprised," he said. "It was really an eye-opening experience for me. I was really impressed with the neatness of the facility, the way it was managed. The proposed ethanol plant at the SEMO Port is going to be a mirror image of the one we saw."
Commissioner Ron McCormick said he watched a truck bring in a load of corn while he was there. The total time to get off the highway, weigh in, unload and get back on the highway was about six minutes, he said.
"Unloading was only about a minute," McCormick said.
Commissioners said the first ethanol plants reportedly emitted unpleasant odors.
"With today's technology, the latest advancements and designs have cleared up a lot of those issues that pertained to the first plants," Burger said.
Malta Bend residents including the plant's board members, employees of the plant, FFA advisors, school teachers and neighbors were available to answer questions, according to Burger.
"They were all positive," he said. "Several of them had testimonials about how great the plant has been for their city, for their region, for their community."
"They're talking about expanding that plant after only two and a half years," McCormick said.
McCormick said among those they spoke with was the resident who lives closest to the plant -- within a half mile.
"He had nothing bad to say," McCormick said. "No problems with smell or noise."
"How can it be bad when fuel is $3 per gallon?" Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn said.
"I can't see any negative that would keep us from supporting a plant," McCormick said.
Burger said it "would be ludicrous to say we oppose it" when one of the things he hears the most from county residents is the need for jobs so their children and grandchildren will be able to stay and work in the county.
"That's the key thing about these planets is the spin-offs," Ziegenhorn said. "For every one job they create at the plant, it creates six more jobs in the community."
"An ethanol plant processes and uses local corns," Burger said. "It increases the price per bushel of corn locally."
He said the plant in Malta Bend reportedly resulted in an increase in the base price for corn of 10 cents per bushel there.
"Look at the money that's going to put in our farmers' pockets to be spent in our community," Burger said.
Ziegenhorn said even with a higher per-bushel price, the plant will get its corn at a low cost as they save on transportation costs.
In addition to bringing jobs into the county, Ziegenhorn also noted "how much our assessed valuation will rise" once a plant is built in the county.
The county's estimated total assessed valuation for 2007 is $388 million, according to county officials.
A single ethanol plant would increase that by almost $20 million, Evans said.
The group which hosted the tour has not yet decided whether they will build the plant in Scott County, according to Evans. If they do proceed, it would be a second ethanol plant slated for Scott County as efforts to establish an ethanol plant in Sikeston are already in progress.
Evans said Scott County officials are considering incentives to attract businesses like the ethanol plant such as establishing an enhanced enterprise zone.