Refinery opponents, backers spar over Hyperion plans
6:45 PM
By Michele LinckLee Newspapers | Posted: Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Opponents and supporters of an oil refinery being proposed in southern Union County held dueling press conferences this afternoon at a Dakota Dunes hotel.
Jason Quam, an Elk Point native and president of a privately funded opposition group, Citizens Opposed to Oil Production, accused Hyperion Resources of Dallas of wanting to get 3,882 acres of ag land in southern Union County zoned planned development so it can sell it off for use as a “garbage dump.”
Hyperion is proposing a $10 billion oil refinery and green energy center about 7 miles north of Elk Point.
After Quam’s half-hour presentation, J.B Mercer, former Union County commissioner Dan Liederman and land use attorney Jeana Goosman, refuted Quam’s allegations in a press conference in the same room.
Goosman said the company’s zoning application calls for the land to revert to its previous zoning, agriculture, if the company does not build the proposed refinery.
Mercer said Quam did not attend any of the three public forums held by the company to explain its plans and technology and did not attend last week’s meeting of the planning and zoning commission at which Hyperion executives laid out their plan and reasons for their zoning request.
“It seems dangerous to me for somebody to complain about it who didn’t attend any other the meetings,” Mercer said.
He also questioned the funding for a recent COOP brochure, which he said was an “attack ad” mailed to 8,000 or 10,000 peole. Quam said no environmental groups funded the mailing, but also that the group does not publicize its donors.
Quam started his press conference by handing out 22-page booklets he put together. It consisted of Hyperion’s profiles of its own executives and copies of four short forms copied from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality Web site showing Hyperion subsidiaries had either owned or applied to construct several sanitary landfills in Texas between 1987 and 1994.
The landfill companies were apparently among more than 60 companies started by Hyperion principals since 1982 and run out of the same Dallas office suite over the past 26 years or so, according to a list in Quam’s book.
Several were “environmental landfills,” which Quam used as evidence of the company’s interest in that industry. He said the nearby railroad could be used to carry garbage from the East Coast, which is experiencing a shortage of landfill capacity.
He said it makes no sense to build an oil refinery where there is no oil and no infrastructure.
Quam said the planned use zoning would allow for manufacturing or gravel mining, something proponents in the audience, including Mercer, Dakota Dunes Development Corp. President Dennis Melstad and others said could not happen under the planned development zoning.
Read more in Wednesday's Sioux City Journal.
Jason Quam, an Elk Point native and president of a privately funded opposition group, Citizens Opposed to Oil Production, accused Hyperion Resources of Dallas of wanting to get 3,882 acres of ag land in southern Union County zoned planned development so it can sell it off for use as a “garbage dump.”
Hyperion is proposing a $10 billion oil refinery and green energy center about 7 miles north of Elk Point.
After Quam’s half-hour presentation, J.B Mercer, former Union County commissioner Dan Liederman and land use attorney Jeana Goosman, refuted Quam’s allegations in a press conference in the same room.
Goosman said the company’s zoning application calls for the land to revert to its previous zoning, agriculture, if the company does not build the proposed refinery.
Mercer said Quam did not attend any of the three public forums held by the company to explain its plans and technology and did not attend last week’s meeting of the planning and zoning commission at which Hyperion executives laid out their plan and reasons for their zoning request.
“It seems dangerous to me for somebody to complain about it who didn’t attend any other the meetings,” Mercer said.
He also questioned the funding for a recent COOP brochure, which he said was an “attack ad” mailed to 8,000 or 10,000 peole. Quam said no environmental groups funded the mailing, but also that the group does not publicize its donors.
Quam started his press conference by handing out 22-page booklets he put together. It consisted of Hyperion’s profiles of its own executives and copies of four short forms copied from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality Web site showing Hyperion subsidiaries had either owned or applied to construct several sanitary landfills in Texas between 1987 and 1994.
The landfill companies were apparently among more than 60 companies started by Hyperion principals since 1982 and run out of the same Dallas office suite over the past 26 years or so, according to a list in Quam’s book.
Several were “environmental landfills,” which Quam used as evidence of the company’s interest in that industry. He said the nearby railroad could be used to carry garbage from the East Coast, which is experiencing a shortage of landfill capacity.
He said it makes no sense to build an oil refinery where there is no oil and no infrastructure.
Quam said the planned use zoning would allow for manufacturing or gravel mining, something proponents in the audience, including Mercer, Dakota Dunes Development Corp. President Dennis Melstad and others said could not happen under the planned development zoning.
Read more in Wednesday's Sioux City Journal.
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bogey4life wrote on Jan 16, 2008 8:40 AM:
bogey wrote on Jan 16, 2008 8:39 AM:
xx wrote on Jan 16, 2008 12:06 AM:
top cat wrote on Jan 15, 2008 10:47 PM:
just me wrote on Jan 15, 2008 10:34 PM: