Plans for fuel plant making progress

Officials said planning for the project is moving along.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

WELSVILLE — Rumors are swirling that the $5 billion Baard Engery coal-to-liquid fuel plant is a go.

Alfred DeAngelis, the manager for the Buckeye Water District, said it looks like the plan will go forward. Buckeye is expected to provide water to the proposed plant.

Other officials have said they have heard that the plan is all but approved.

Tracy Drake, the chief executive officer for the Columbiana County Port Authority, said Friday that’s not true. But Drake added that things are going very well.

Steve Dopuch, a spokesman for Ohio River Clean Fuels, a subsidiary that would run the plant, agreed.

“It’s fair to say that Baard has a strong confidence level that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is going to work with them to facilitate the plant being approved,” Drake said.

Instead of having the company prepare and submit a plan that would have to be changed, the OEPA is working with John A. Baardson, the president and CEO of Baard Energy of Vancouver, Wash., to explain what is needed.

The OEPA is being “tough but fair,” Drake added.

Dopuch said that the proposed plan needs three state permits on water quality in the Ohio River, air quality and stream runoff at the site.

Dopuch said company and state EPA engineers are talking to one another about what each side wants or needs on a given issue.

“I feel very confident that that we’re making really good progress,” he said.

Dopuch said he could not say what percentage of the process has been completed.

Once the plan is submitted, the OEPA has said it will try to approve it in about six months, according to Drake.

Linda Oros, a spokesperson for the OEPA, said that the agency tries to approve plans in three to six months.

Drake said that if all goes well, the groundbreaking that was estimated to take place in the summer or autumn of 2008 would occur in autumn or early winter in 2008.

Shell Group has allowed Baird to use its burner technology in the refining process. The technology is used in other parts of the world, but not in North or South America, Drake said.

“This will be the first ever in the United States,” Drake said.

Baardson is considering building several more coal-to-liquid fuel plants, which is why the port authority hopes to get him to build a second plant locally.

Dopuch said he had not heard talk about about moving ahead with a second facility locally.

wilkinson@vindy.com