The potential for a biodiesel production plant still exists at Liberty Landfill in eastern White County, but it’s not contingent on the status of a woodland plot at the landfill anymore.
However, Liberty Landfill Manager Terry Beasy sought and received a letter of support for a potential biodiesel facility during Monday morning’s White County Commissioner meeting.
Regarding the woodland, Beasy last month approached the commissioners requesting a letter of support to be written to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) in order to lift a restrictive covenant on 10.2 acres of conservation area. The covenant was entered into on a voluntary basis by the owners of the landfill in the 1990s, said Beasy.
But since that covenant was voluntary, Beasy informed the commissioners Monday that a letter to IDEM was no longer necessary. “Although it’s nice to have county support, we believe that will happen with or without the letter. Since it was placed voluntarily it can be lifted voluntarily,” he said.
And since more than 120 acres of conservation land exist at the landfill and with plans to expand its scope of operation with a biodiesel plant in the works, Beasy said the lifting of the restriction will help the landfill without hurting the environment.
Of the 10.2 acres included in the original covenant, Beasy indicated that 3.3 would be designated for a biodiesel plant that needs to be constructed next to the electric generation plant already on site in order to be effective, as a biodiesel plant would use the waste heat coming off the generator to trigger biodiesel production.
In addition to several plots of wildlife and woodlands in and around the landfill, a deal between the landfill and the local chapter of Pheasants Forever is all but cemented, which will call for the creation of 70 acres of wildlife habitat a half-mile east of the landfill.
“The removal of the original 10 acres becomes inconsequential to the 70 or so currently in development for a wildlife area,” Beasy commented.
But Beasy didn’t walk away empty handed from Monday’s meeting. He received a pledge of support from the county that will come in the form of a letter written to the Indiana Economic Development Corp. (IEDC) asking that the landfill be included in their Clean Energy Tax Credit program.
The program supports renewable energy production and for the proposed biodiesel plant in White County, would pay back $1 for every gallon of biodiesel produced in the taxable year with a maximum received set at $3 million.
Recently, the Indiana Senate increased the maximum amount of tax credits that can be given for biodiesel manufacturing from $20 million to $50 million. And when that money is out, it’s out. That’s why Beasy said he’s eager and appreciative of the county’s support for a potential production plant. The letter, he explained, will affirm to the IEDC that the local government does back the project.
Often funding the planned biodiesel facility could get through the tax credit program is the deal maker with plants going online across the state, Beasy said, and would be the same here.
“Everyone making biofuels is getting that tax credit and they probably are not going to make it otherwise,” said Beasy of this formative stage in Indiana renewable energy development.
Said John Heimlich, president of the board of commissioners, of the project, “We’ve been following this and it will certainly tie in with BioTown and what the county is doing. With the gas plant already there, it’s just taking that a step further.”
Heimlich noted that the state agriculture department has been on top of the landfill’s plans and said the BioTown initiative in Reynolds will work hand-in-hand with those at the landfill.
Beasy said an announcement on the plant could come within a month.