Schroeppel Town Board asked to rescind support for Bion

Schroeppel, Oswego County (WSYR-TV) - A group of residents of the Oswego County Town of Schroeppel are planning to express to the Town Board their dissatisfaction with a plan to build a large-scale slaughterhouse operation in their area. Wednesday they erected signs expressing their satisfaction, and Thursday they plan to press the issue at a meeting of the Town Board.

Karen Hall is the organizer of a movement called Citizens for Family Farms and says her grass roots movement against Bion Environmental Technologies' proposed livestock and ethanol facility is growing. "Every day more and more people are finding out about it, we want people to make the right choice and informed decision for our community," she said.

Hall and others are spreading the word with lawn signs, similar to those used by politicians. The signs read, "NoDeathanol Plant," and advertize the group's website which includes a schedule of meetings for local governing bodies and information about the Bion proposal. It also includes a petition against the Bion Plant.

Even though Bion has yet to identify an exact location for the proposed facility, members of Citizens for Family Farms feel the Town of Schroeppel is the most likely choice. There's plenty of land available at the Oswego County Industrial park for the proposed equipment and 72,000 cattle.

The project has been the talk of the town for months, even at a small gathering of people at the State Street Café where Phoenix resident Mike Lattimore said he wanted answers about the true size and scope of the project. "I've lived in Phoenix 34 years," he said. "I moved here because of the clean air and water. I'm worried that everything I moved here for could be damaged because of this."

A Bion representative says the company is well aware of what it calls an aggressive campaign to generate opposition to the project, which the company calls destructive to real dialogue and any honest effort to inform the Oswego community.

The Schroeppel Town Board meets Thursday evening and the group Citizens for Family Farms is asking board members to rescind their support of Bion's proposal until more information about the project is known.

Oswego (WSYR-TV) - A controversial ethanol and livestock operation proposed for Oswego County remains just a proposal, for now. Bion Environmental Technologies first proposed the $150 million project in June.

The company claims Oswego County is the prime spot for something like this, but neighbors disagree, saying it could contaminate air and water quality. Monday night, the County's Environmental Management Council said it will only consider the project after the proper work has been done.

"We've been looking and researching the technology behind it; manure processing, artificial wetlands technology and how effective that is so that if and when the time comes and Bion finds a site, the county will be prepared to respond to their proposal," said EMC Chairman Tim Carroll.

The next meeting about the project is set for October 18th. It will be open to the public.

Oswego (WSYR-TV) - An ethanol and livestock operation that wants to move into Central New York put its plan before more than 100 people Wednesday night at SUNY Oswego.  Bion Environmental Technologies plans to build a $150 million operation in multiple locations within Oswego County.

Bion is proposing the facility use a new method to make their company environmentally and economically sustainable, by using the waste created in one part of the facility would be used to power another - it's called a 'closed-loop operation.' That wasn't settling well with some of those sitting in the audience, who wished the method could be proven somewhere else before being built in Oswego County.

The proposal carries the promise of 588 jobs, which would mean more than $20.3 million in wages each year, but the plan is still a hard sell for the community.

While the job prospects were attractive, Mike Lattimore of Citizens for Family Farms worries about the county's existing jobs. "If we lost 10 percent of them, a lot of them are recreational jobs, to the project because people don't want to come here to do recreation, then we just lost 5,000 jobs to get 600," she said.

Many community members who attended Wednesday's meeting were focused on where the proposed facilities would be located, and why many think Oswego County isn't the best place for the ethanol and livestock operation. The company touted Oswego County as being a prime location with its port, but some expressed the belief that location is the biggest draw back and provided feedback about the seasonal conditions.

When a community member pointed out the lack of big farms in the area was due to the climate, representative James Morris explained how Bion planned to overcome that obstacle. "The Bion process will be heat and be maintained at no lower than about 40 degrees. So that takes away that variability," he said.

"Those are exactly the kinds of inputs that they need to take into account as they put the design together," said Jeff Kappell of Bion's project development.

The company says it's still in its planning stages and didn't have a clear answer on where the facilities would be located in Oswego County. They did say, however, that the facilities would have to be large enough to house 72,000 beef cattle, some of which would be killed in the operation's slaughter house.

Oswego (WSYR-TV) - People who live in the Oswego County Town of Schroeppel hope to get answers tonight about a large-scale animal slaughterhouse proposed for their community.

Bion Technologies says the facility will have minimal impact on the environment and would also provide electricity from the methane gas produced there. Bion also claims the project has the potential to create up to 600 new jobs.

The forum is set to take place tonight at SUNY Oswego, at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center Auditorium. Newschannel 9 will have more details during tonight's Eleven@11.

Town of Schroeppel (WSYR-TV) - Residents of the Town of Schroeppel may soon receive a postcard in the mail from a group called Citizens for Family Farms. The postcard is protesting a project that would potentially bring 72,000 cows to a future location in Oswego County.

Bion Environmental Technologies is proposing the project, which would create a facility that also includes an ethanol plant. The idea is to use the waste created at one part of the facility to power the other part.

The process is called a 'closed-loop operation' and it's supposed to create little waste.

Local corn, and corn shipped in through the port of Oswego would be used with methane produced by cows to make ethanol. Ethanol is then sold on the market. The waste created by the ethanol making process is actually then used to feed the cows. Some cows would be slaughtered for sale, while the others create manure, which is then again used to produce ethanol.

This would be the first time Bion has constructed something like this and opponents like Mike Lattimore of Citizens for Family Farms say there are still too many unknowns. "The big question is, is it going to work?  And where are you going to put 72,000 cows? And where are you going to put the factories?"

What the company does know, is that this project probably won't go on a single location. Bion says this project is in its very early stages and locations have not been chosen yet. Representatives say once sites have been selected, they will be considered industrial and subject to all the state's rules and regulations.