Waltonville asked to annex new ethanol plant
Mt. Vernon would then provide water to the facility
By TESA CULLI
tesa.culli@register-news.com
WALTONVILLE — The question of who will provide water to the Ethanex ethanol plant slated for construction in Waltonville is now being answered, according to village president George Gifford.
“We’ve received the application from Ethanex to be annexed into the village, and now we’re waiting on a plat of the ground to move forward,” Gifford said. “I’ve spoken with the engineers in Carlyle working on that.”
Questions about who would provide the 1.5 million gallons of water per day needed by the plant arose because part of the plant is located in the village limits, while the portion of the plant which will create the ethanol is located outside the limits in the county. Rend Lake Conservancy District owns a water main which runs across the road from the proposed Ethanex site, and would have been responsible for providing water to the parts of the plant outside village limits, according to information discussed at prior RLCD board meetings.
Those areas within the village limits receive water from Mt. Vernon, according to a contract the city has with RLCD, Mt. Vernon City Manager Ron Neibert said.
“We’ve had some meetings regarding line upgrades to supply the water to the plant,” Neibert said. “We’re now exploring financing to do that. We can supply Ethanex with 1 mgd for them to open, and are working with RLCD, Greater Egypt Planning Commission and the [Jefferson County Development Corporation] on that issue.”
Neibert said in the estimated 12 to 18 months the plant is expected to be under construction, the water line upgrades can be completed.
“When they get ready to open their doors, everything will be in place,” Neibert predicted.
Ethanex Chairman Bob Walther said Tuesday construction on the plant, on a 169 acre site just off Hirons Street in the village, is expected to begin about April 2008 — six months later than originally estimated.
“The delay has been precipitated by engineering work,” Walther explained. “Our engineering provider has been inundated with work and they had no manpower to complete our work. We now have contracts in place to complete the work on deadline. Unfortunately, sometimes you can’t control everything.”
When completed, the plant will produce 132 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol per year, according to information from Ethanex. In addition to the ethanol, the plant will produce 195,500 tons of high protein feed for poultry, swine and cattle and 15,000 tons of food grade corn oil annually.
During the construction phase of the facility, it is expected that about 400 jobs will be created and once operational, about 55 plant jobs will be available, according to information from Ethanex.
Financing for the plant is “doing well,” Walther reported.
“We have the debt program in place and we’ll be going to the equity market after the first of the year,” Walther said. “We want to do that near the start time of construction. ... We don’t want to put substantial amounts of equity in place and not have the project that substantially completed, which is why we are waiting until the first of the year.”
