Neighbors Upset with Proposed Diesel Fuel Plant
A proposed diesel fuel plant in Empire Township is being met with resistance from its Dakota County neighbors, Rosemount and Coates.
The plant is being proposed by Rational Energies, based in Eden Prairie, a company that develops alternative forms of fuel. The 200,000 square foot plant in Empire Township would burn garbage into diesel fuel.
However, officials from the neighboring towns of Rosemount and Coates are opposed to the location of the plant, according to a report by the Pioneer Press.
Coates Mayor Jack Gores told the Pioneer Press that his city is concerned that the location of the plant will negatively affect the value of land located nearby.
Rosemount Mayor Bill Droste sent officials from Empire Township a letter outlining his city’s concerns with the proposed plant.
Droste is concerned with the proximity of the plant to the University of Minnesota Outreach, Research and Education Park, a nearby planned community that could have up to 30,000 residents.
The UMore Park site is located just northwest of the proposed diesel plant and Rosemount officials believe that the volume of garbage trucked to the plant would cause problems for residents of the community.
Rational Energies CEO Ed Driscoll said that he understands the concerns of Rosemount and Coates, but does not believe that the proposed facility should be an issue for the communities.
“You’ve got Flint Hill up the street that produces 1,000 times more air emissions than what we would, a food processor that actually incinerates food in Rosemount. And you have a number of very large landfills in Rosemount,” Driscoll said to the Pioneer Press.
The facility has received approval from Empire Township and now must go through a permit process and environmental study with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Driscoll told the Pioneer Press that the permit process could take 12 to 18 months, and that the company hopes the plant will open sometime during the middle of 2012.