Refinery proposal next goes to county commission
By Michele Linck Journal staff writer | Posted: Friday, January 18, 2008
ELK POINT, S.D. -- A Texas energy company's zoning application for a proposed oil refinery in southern Union County got a favorable recommendation from the county's planning and zoning commission Wednesday night. The vote sends the application on to the Union County Board of Commissioners.
The application by Dallas-based Hyperion Resources asks to change 3,882 acres of agricultural land to planned development zoning for a 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery and small plant that will turn a refining by-product into electricity for its own use. The county commissioners will have the final say on whether the zoning is granted.
Union County Commission Chairman Doyle Karpen said his board will likely take up the application at its next meeting on Jan. 29, if the zoning board formally presents its recommendation that day. He said the board may also set a date for the public hearing it is required to hold.
Karpen said the earliest possible hearing date would be the middle of February, given the requirement to advertise it 10 days ahead and to place ads in the four county newspapers, along with coordinating a date with the high school's gym schedule.
"I anticipate a large crowd again," he said, referring to 1,000 or so residents who attended Wednesday's hearing at Elk point-Jefferson High School.
Karpen said he has read most of Hyperion's massive zoning application. "I think all the board members are doing some of their own homework and getting information," he said. "We need to look at the application, look at the process. They have to fulfill the necessary criteria of a planned development."
He said the economic and environmental impacts of the project are the responsibility of the state and federal governments.
Karpen said he did not attend Wednesday's public hearing and that commissioners have avoided going to the zoning commission's meetings or the hearing to avoid having a quorum present. That could be interpreted as holding an illegal meeting, he said.
Opponents vow resistance
Wednesday's planning and zoning commission vote was 4-1. Board chairman Bob James of Beresford, S.D., cast the dissenting vote. Voting yes were: Dale Neely, North Sioux City; Tom Smith, Dakota Dunes; Dan Fullenkamp, Elk Point; and Jerry Eilers, Alcester, S.D.
They voted without any discussion, a fact which irked opponents of the proposed refinery.
"This was skirmish number one in what might be a hundred skirmishes," said Ed Cable, co-chairman of the opposition group Save Union County Committee. "We re very confident our position will prevail."
Hyperion executives, who gave a brief presentation on the project at the beginning of the hearing, said they were pleased with the vote, which keeps their project alive. "I thought it was a good hearing of the situation," project executive J.L. Corky Frank said after the hearing.
In a statement from Hyperion on Thursday, project executive Preston Phillips noted that the zoning commission "listened to hours of testimony and pored through hundreds of pages of technical scientific, economic and environmental reports before making their decision."
He called Wednesday's vote "a step in the right direction."
The company must also get through a gauntlet of a dozen federal air, water and other environmental permits, as well as design reviews in order to build the refinery.
Hyperion continues to maintain that the Union County site is just one of several in the Midwest.
The application by Dallas-based Hyperion Resources asks to change 3,882 acres of agricultural land to planned development zoning for a 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery and small plant that will turn a refining by-product into electricity for its own use. The county commissioners will have the final say on whether the zoning is granted.
Union County Commission Chairman Doyle Karpen said his board will likely take up the application at its next meeting on Jan. 29, if the zoning board formally presents its recommendation that day. He said the board may also set a date for the public hearing it is required to hold.
Karpen said the earliest possible hearing date would be the middle of February, given the requirement to advertise it 10 days ahead and to place ads in the four county newspapers, along with coordinating a date with the high school's gym schedule.
"I anticipate a large crowd again," he said, referring to 1,000 or so residents who attended Wednesday's hearing at Elk point-Jefferson High School.
Karpen said he has read most of Hyperion's massive zoning application. "I think all the board members are doing some of their own homework and getting information," he said. "We need to look at the application, look at the process. They have to fulfill the necessary criteria of a planned development."
He said the economic and environmental impacts of the project are the responsibility of the state and federal governments.
Karpen said he did not attend Wednesday's public hearing and that commissioners have avoided going to the zoning commission's meetings or the hearing to avoid having a quorum present. That could be interpreted as holding an illegal meeting, he said.
Opponents vow resistance
Wednesday's planning and zoning commission vote was 4-1. Board chairman Bob James of Beresford, S.D., cast the dissenting vote. Voting yes were: Dale Neely, North Sioux City; Tom Smith, Dakota Dunes; Dan Fullenkamp, Elk Point; and Jerry Eilers, Alcester, S.D.
They voted without any discussion, a fact which irked opponents of the proposed refinery.
"This was skirmish number one in what might be a hundred skirmishes," said Ed Cable, co-chairman of the opposition group Save Union County Committee. "We re very confident our position will prevail."
Hyperion executives, who gave a brief presentation on the project at the beginning of the hearing, said they were pleased with the vote, which keeps their project alive. "I thought it was a good hearing of the situation," project executive J.L. Corky Frank said after the hearing.
In a statement from Hyperion on Thursday, project executive Preston Phillips noted that the zoning commission "listened to hours of testimony and pored through hundreds of pages of technical scientific, economic and environmental reports before making their decision."
He called Wednesday's vote "a step in the right direction."
The company must also get through a gauntlet of a dozen federal air, water and other environmental permits, as well as design reviews in order to build the refinery.
Hyperion continues to maintain that the Union County site is just one of several in the Midwest.
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