on ethanol plant

Staff Writer

CARLISLE - Questions about the new ethanol plant will be answered tonight at the Carlisle Town Hall.

A community meeting will be held at 6:30 concerning the proposed Congaree Bio Energy Ethanol plant to be located near Carlisle.

Representatives from Congaree and the state Department of Health and Envirionmental Control will be on hand to answer questions about the plant.

Donna Rowe, Upstate Regional Community Liaison for DHEC, said the meeting is part of the permitting process which can take as much as a year. She said the meeting will be the community's only opportunity to ask questions in a public setting.

“This is an opportunity for the community to ask questions,” she said. “At the public hearing on Sept. 15 there will be no opportunity to ask questions; we'll only be taking comments for the record.”

The plant, which will be located at the corner of River Road and Woodyard Road, is being built by Virginia-based Osage Bio Energy. The company plans to invest $161.5 million in the facility, which will employ 75 people in the production of barley-based ethanol. The investment includes $110 million for the facility's construction and $41.5 million for pollution control mechanisms required by DHEC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Plans call for the plant to get steam, water and waste water treatment from the adjacent Carlisle Finishing facility and its potable water from the Town of Carlisle. The plant, which will be South Carolina's first ethanol production facility, will use regionally-produced barley instead of corn to make ethanol.

Union County is supporting the project with an incentive package that includes a 20-year fee-in-lieu of taxes agreement that lowers Congaree's tax rate from 10.5 percent to 6 percent. The agreement is projected to generate $13.1 million in tax revenues for the county over the life of the agreement.

The package also includes a $250,000 special source credit which matches a $250,000 allocation from the S.C. Department of Commerce. The company, which will use the funds for road and water improvements to the plant site, will be able to take the credit off its taxes if it meets the requirement of minimum investment of $110 million and 55 jobs generated.

Under the terms of the package, Congaree must issue a biennial report to Union County Council on the number of county residents employed at the plant. Similar requirements were included in the county's incentive packages for Disney Direct Marketing, Dollar General and LSP.