Ethanol Plant Still Faces Hurdles
While Pacific Rim Ethanol LLC recently announced that it wants to break ground on a $122 million ethanol plant in Moses Lake in July, the new business may be premature in its plans.
Several local and state agencies say the project must go through a lengthy permitting process. Also, the city of Moses Lake is waiting for approval for a $1.6 million state grant to extend utilities to the proposed plant site.
Pacific Rim Ethanol said last week it would build a plant to distill wheat and barley for production of fuel ethanol as well as beverage and industrial-grade alcohol and animal feed. Ethanol is mixed with gasoline to cut carbon monoxide emissions.
The company, which is supported in part by the Ritzville Warehouse Co., has already started soliciting investors to raise $15 million. That money is needed to secure other financing to complete the project.
Pacific Rim is offering $5 shares in the business and has already sent out about 2,000 copies of its prospectus to potential investors, said Douglas MacKenzie, president and CEO of Pacific Rim. Only Washington residents or Washington-based businesses can buy stock.
News of plans to break ground this summer surprised the state and local agencies that should be working with the company on permits to build and operate the plant.
The requirements include completing a State Environmental Policy Act statement to define the project. The SEPA form will be reviewed by all interested parties, including the fire department, Grant County planning department and the city of Moses Lake.
“We haven’t even seen a full description of the project yet,” said Doug Jayne, Department of Ecology permit coordinator. “As of yet, it’s not really a fully alive project.”
The company says it has a draft SEPA nearly ready for DOE review.
It could be awhile before the city of Moses Lake can extend utilities to the plant site, which is two miles from existing utility lines.
“It’s in the works,” said Gary Harer, municipal service director for the city. The utilities project is contingent upon the city getting about $1.6 million in funding from the state Community Economic Revitalization Board, he added. A decision on the grant should be made today.
If funding is approved, “the city is planning on starting designing the construction for those utilities probably by late this fall,” and the actual construction would start in 2001, Harer said. Without the utility work, Pacific Rim can’t run the plant, he said.
“It has a way to go (to get all the needed permits),” agreed MacKenzie. “But we’ve agreed to work with them to accelerate the process.”
MacKenzie said the plant doesn’t have a lot of environmental issues. As state and local agencies agree, the permits should come quickly, he said.