Ozarks ethanol company eyes Neosho for third plant

Gib Garrow, Neosho director of economic development, said Gulfstream Bioflex Energy LLC officers and the company’s engineers have visited the Newton County city four times in recent months. Garrow said they have toured locations in Neosho and negotiated with city leaders regarding the company’s infrastructure needs.

Neosho is one of several plant sites throughout the state that GBE is considering, said CEO Greg Wilmoth, who declined to comment further. Wilmoth said he was unaware of a recent article in the Quincy (Ill.) Herald-Whig that publicized Neosho as a future plant site.

GBE announced Jan. 17 that it would build a $220 million plant in Monroe City, a small town about 20 miles west of Hannibal in northeast Missouri.

In August, the company unveiled plans for a $185 million corn-based ethanol plant on 252 acres east of Rogersville, but surrounding property owners concerned about their groundwater supply filed a lawsuit to block the plant. Both sides are preparing for a March 6 trial.

Air permit process

The Missouri Department of Natural Resource’s Division of Environmental Quality received a request for air dispersion modeling for a proposed ethanol plant in Jasper, Newton and McDonald counties, according to a Missouri Air Conservation Commission briefing document dated Dec. 7. Kyra Moore, permits section chief for DNR, said GBE requested the inventories for the three counties.

“I honestly don’t know the locations in those counties,” she added. “I think they were hedging their bets and making sure that we got started on things ahead of time.”

The Air Pollution Control Program requires the modeling for proposed ethanol plants and recommends that companies file their requests at least three to six months before applying for a construction permit.

Late last year, GBE requested an air modeling inventory for Webster County in conjunction with the proposed Rogersville plant, according to Moore.

The inventories identify every air pollution source in a county and every emission point, Moore said.

DNR then feeds that information into a computer model to ensure the new

pollution source will meet environmental regulations and air quality standards, she said.

Still preliminary

Neosho’s Garrow described his conversations with GBE as “preliminary” and said many details will have to be negotiated before an agreement is announced.

“Any type of investment like that is significant, and we will continue to work with them,” he said.

Working in Neosho’s favor, though, is the town’s industrial areas and accessibility.

An industrial park near the U.S. Army’s Camp Crowder would be an ideal location for such a facility, Garrow said. The park adjoins the Missouri National Guard installation and other industrial facilities. Railroad links are available to the north-south Kansas City Southern and east-west Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway lines, he said.

Newton County’s average corn production is far less than the counties of Missouri’s four existing and six proposed ethanol plants; however, Garrow said that Neosho’s rail and highway accessibility offsets its lack of local corn production.

“(GBE) can bring corn in cheaper than transporting the fuel,” he said.

U.S. highways 71 and 60 intersect in Newton County, and Interstate 44 passes through the northern part of the county.[[In-content Ad]]