Drilling for Webster County ethanol plant could resume Thursday

Matt Wagner

Posted online October 17, 2006 | 11:00 pm

A temporary restraining order requiring a Mount Vernon company to stop drilling east of Rogersville for a proposed ethanol plant will expire at the end of today, and the company’s attorneys have filed a motion for a change of judge.

Earlier this month, a group of neighbors opposed to the plant’s potential impact on their groundwater supply filed a lawsuit against Gulfstream Bioflex Energy LLC in Webster County Associate Circuit Court.

Last week, Judge Kenneth Thompson granted a temporary restraining order that required GBE to stop drilling at the 252-acre plant site northeast of U.S. Highway 60 and Porter’s Crossing Road if residents posted a $25,000 bond.

Thompson was scheduled to hear arguments regarding the plant opponents’ motion for a preliminary injunction this morning, but GBE’s attorneys short-circuited the hearing with a last-minute motion for a change of judge filed Tuesday.

Thompson said he was required by Missouri law to forward the case to the state Supreme Court, which will assign a new judge to the suit.

GBE attorney Jason Smith with Husch & Eppenberger LLC said drilling at the plant site could resume as early as Thursday. The well-drilling company stationed at the site is costing GBE $2,500 a day – an expense the company incurred while no drilling was happening, Smith said. [[In-content Ad]]