Failure to meet EPA standards takes Allen County out of running for $100 million plant

Allen County’s failure to meet federal air quality standards knocked it out of the running for a $100 million soybean processing plant — and may affect future development if ozone levels don’t improve.

Louis Dreyfus Ag Industries announced last week that it had selected a 250-acre site near Claypool, in Kosciusko County, for a plant that will process more than 140,000 bushels of beans per day. A parcel in east Allen County, near New Haven, was rejected because of the air quality issue.

“It makes getting a permit impossible,” said Steve Snyder, the attorney for the Louis Dreyfus subsidiary.

Kosciusko County meets air quality standards, so obtaining an air emissions permit there will not be an issue. The property won’t have to be rezoned, because ag businesses are permitted uses within agricultural areas with the approval of the zoning board, Snyder said.

The soybean plant will employ 60 people when it is up and running, about two years from now. Construction, which would probably begin by the end of the year, will create 300 jobs for a period of 12 to 18 months.

The soybean plant is just the first phase of a huge agro-industrial park Louis Dreyfus hopes to construct, Snyder said. The second phase calls for construction of an 80-million gallon per year biodisel plant, and the third phase would be construction of a 100-million gallon ethanol project.

The company looked at nearly a dozen sites in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio before settling on Kosciusko County, Snyder said.

Although companies like Louis Dreyfus also consider offers of tax abatements and other economic incentives when deciding where to locate a facility, no amount of subsidies could have made up for Allen County’s failure to achieve air quality certification, Snyder said.

In April 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated 23 Indiana counties — including Allen — and one partial county as “non-attainment” for failing to meet new eight-hour ozone standards.

Ozone is a lung irritant and can be harmful, especially for people with asthma or other respiratory illnesses.

According to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), a non-attainment designation means that ozone levels, measured by air monitors in the area, have exceeded federal health standards on at least some days during the summer ozone season over a three-year period.

Non-attainment triggers planning requirements for existing sources of air pollution and stricter requirements for certain types of new and expanding facilities that emit air pollution.

Projects that emit volatile organic compounds or nitrogen oxides are affected because those are the air pollutants that cause ozone to form.

Rob Young, president of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance, maintains projects that need air certificates “are extremely rare” and the Louis Dreyfus plant is the only project Allen lost because of air quality issues.

“Other than that it’s been business as usual,” he said.

Small projects are unlikely to be affected by the non-attainment status, according to IDEM. But big projects must go through what is called a “non-attainment new source review.” And projects not considered big emitters in an area that meets air quality standards may be considered big emitters in a non-attainment area.

Projects in non-attainment areas sometimes require more strict emission controls or may be required to limit emissions by limiting production. The project applicant also may be required to mitigate that plant’s emissions by obtaining reductions in emissions from other sources within the same non-attainment area.

The process of obtaining an air emissions permit in a non-attainment area can be tedious and time consuming and even then the results are uncertain. So some businesses find it easier to locate elsewhere.

“But it is very possible for economic development to continue where air quality issues need to be addressed,” said Amy Hartsock, public information officer for IDEM.

In April, the American Lung Association again gave Allen County a grade of “F” in its annual “State of the Air” report. Based on three years of data, Allen had a weighted average of 7, with 21 days per year when ozone levels were unhealthy for children, the elderly and those with asthma and other respiratory problems.

The worst county in Indiana for ozone was St. Joseph County with a weighted average of 11.8. Marion County’s weighted average was 10.5.

Allen County just barely failed the EPA’s air quality standard, Harsock noted. Allen’s rating for 2001-2003 was .088 parts per million. To achieve attainment status, it must be below .085 parts per million.

The 2004 level was down, but additional improvement is needed this year to get the rolling three-year average below .085. If that happens, “we anticipate the area should attain the standard in a short time, possibly by the end of the year,” she said.

The federal deadline for attainment is 2009.

The Indiana counties failing to attain air quality standards were: Allen, Boone, Clark, Dearborn (Lawrenceburg Township only), Delaware, Elkhart, Floyd, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Jackson, Johnson, Lake, LaPorte, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Porter, Shelby, St. Joseph, Vanderburgh, Vigo and Warrick.

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