CUMBERLAND – The County's Planners recommended a conditional use permit submitted by Ag Renewable Resources LLC to the Board of Supervisors for consideration on Monday evening. With the recommendation being decided, the Supervisors are set to hold its public hearing next week.

The Planning Commission originally deferred the action last week so that additional information could be sought related to questions posed by the Commission and citizens concerning the proposed conditions that would regulate the renewable energy facility once in operation.

“We had some questions on some of the conditions last week and staff was going to check it out for us and consult with (the Ag) Renewable Resources people,” said Planning Commission Chairman Parker Wheeler.

The proposed conditional use permit would allow as a conditional use the facility to manufacture fertilizer and generate electric power. The facility's proposed property is within Cumberland's newly rezoned business park on Poorhouse Road.

A public hearing was held on November 16 and at that meeting the Planners decided to defer action to the Commission's workshop meeting on Monday in order to finalize its recommendation.

To start, Andrew Sorrell, planning and zoning administrator, discussed on Monday evening that “there were several questions that were raised separate from the conditions” that he wanted to address before the Commission decided on its recommendation.

According to Sorrell, one citizen raised a question during the public hearing process about how land clearing was occurring on the site even though the permit had not yet been granted.

“In situations where an Erosion and Sediment Control Plan has been approved, land clearing can occur on property and if a use that is proposed on a property has not yet been permitted then the applicant is taking a risk…,” said Sorrell. “If the application is not approved then they have just cleared a nice piece of land for the Industrial Development Authority to market…”

Another question was brought forth related to the Commission's public notice process.

“All notices have…appeared for two weeks and have been consecutively advertised a week a part and in addition to that, adjacent property owners all received notification in conformance with state law,” he said. “That same code applies to the conditional use permit and as well the rezoning that was recently approved by the Board of Supervisors.”

According to Chairman Wheeler, because the Monday meeting date was the Commission's regularly scheduled workshop there would be no public comment.

“There will be no public speaking at all at this meeting,” he said to those in attendance. “However, if you do have questions that you'd like to have answered please feel free to write them down and take them by and the staff will get the answers for you sometime in the upcoming weeks.”

Related to the proposed conditions that are attached to the conditional use permit, Sorrell provided additional information as clarification.

There are a total of 20 conditions that will run with the permit in addition to the IDA's protective covenants and restrictions that were recently recorded on the business park property's deed.

Sorrell stated that one addition to the conditions was a definition of “biosolids.”

The feedstock condition now reads, “In no event shall sewage sludge or biosolids produced outside of Cumberland County, Virginia be permitted as a feedstock in the facility. For the purpose of this condition, the term 'biosolids' shall mean any solid, semi-solid, or liquid materials removed from municipal sewage and treated to be recycled as fertilizer. Additionally, for the purpose of this condition the term 'sewage sludge' shall mean any solid, semi-solid, or liquid materials removed during the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment facility.”

Another addition includes a term for “enclosed,” according to Sorrell, when it applies to a vehicle that is transporting feedstock to the thermophilic anaerobic digester facility.

Under that specific condition regarding “Conveyance, removal, and storage of material” language was added that reads: “For the purpose of this condition, the term 'enclosed' shall mean a vehicle whose material is completely covered with a roll-back tarp or similar means to reduce odor and prevent material from leaving the vehicle.”

That condition also states the requirement that arriving feedstock will have to be transported to the facility in enclosed vehicles and will be removed in a “negative envelope enclosed building.”

This proposed design, Sorrell noted, would “limit air that exits the building when the doors are opened.”

Also, according to Sorrell, a new condition was added to the beginning of the list defining several terms that are used in the conditions. The definitions of “property,” “owner,” and “park” were added.

One condition now deals with particulate control and the temporary entrance that will be used at the facility until the permanent road is constructed into the Cumberland business park.

That condition in its final version reads, “Particulate control shall conform to the M-1 Industrial Performance Standards and the Park covenants and restrictions as described in Condition #2 above. Such covenants and restrictions require all parking areas, access drives, and outdoor storage areas to be paved.

“Until such time as the permanent entrance to the Property from the interior access road in the Park is in use, the temporary entrance to the property located on Poorhouse Road shall be permitted to remain unpaved. However, the Owner shall develop a dust control plan (which shall be submitted in the operations plan) that describes specific methods for dust control. If, upon inspection by Cumberland County, such methods are determined to be insufficient, the Owner shall submit a revised dust control plan for review and approval by the Zoning Administrator.

“For the purpose of this condition, 'temporary entrance' shall mean the entrance to the Property from Poorhouse Road as shown on the Preliminary Site Plan submitted with the Conditional Use Permit Application #10-03 prepared by Bowman Consulting and dated September 2010. The length of such temporary entrance to remain unpaved shall be the portion of the entrance noted as 'Temporary Gravel Access Road' on the aforementioned plan.”

“One of the concerns that staff did have is that if there was going to be a gravel drive was to make sure that dust did not become an issue,” noted Sorrell about the requested dust control plan. “…As part of this condition they will be required to submit a dust control plan which basically describes if dust does start to become something that is a noticeable issue then the methods for how that dust will be controlled will be listed in that dust control plan so that if it does start to pop up there is already a plan in place as to how they will control it.”

To clarify some of the questions raised, one particular section in the conditions was removed because it was meant to reference storage of bulk petroleum and oil, noted Sorrell about language that was struck, which was a carryover from the conditions that were used for the proposed landfill.

“The methane gas storage tanks are a component of the private electric power generating facility for which the owner has required a conditional use permit for,” added Sorrell about the concern.

Another addition includes that the facility's Operations Plan also include an emergency plan and, as previously stated, a dust control plan.

It was also explained that, as far as financial assurance goes, the applicant will be required to maintain pollution insurance coverage in the amount of $1,000,000 on its operations and that a closure bond will also be furnished in the amount of $150,000 to ensure that the facility would be properly returned to its original state if the facility is abandoned.

According to Sorrell, as he develops conditions for proposed conditional use permits when they come into his office, information is taken from “already in place conditions” to make sure that the uses are “suitable and not something that is completely out there” and that they can be enforced from a county standpoint.

The proposed changes to the list of conditions were reviewed with Ag Renewable Resources, Sorrell noted to the Planners and were well received.

“Now, since the County Attorney has been unable to review these conditions, staff is working with an outside legal representation to review them from a legal standpoint and I would suggest that if the Planning Commission was acceptable with these conditions that you would recommend them pending a review by legal counsel which staff is working towards and should have before the Board has their public hearing,” explained Sorrell.

After the presentation of the revised conditions, the Commission then asked a few questions of the applicant.

Carol Miller asked Daryl Bishop, representing Ag Renewable Resources, what the job descriptions would be for the three proposed employees for the facility.

“I'm just curious of the job descriptions for the three people that you are going to employ?” she asked.

According to Bishop, one full-time position would be in charge of managing the facility as a plant operator.

The second position would be pick-up and delivery from the poultry farms to the facility.

“The delivery would be coordinated with cleanout of the chicken houses so there would be a delivery cycle,” he said.

The third position would be a part-time loading position.

Randy Bryant asked if the business plans to contact “every (chicken) farmer in Cumberland County?”

Bishop responded that it is the business's goal to contact all local farmers. The business also sent out a survey in 2008, he noted, about interest in the proposed poultry digester.

According to his comments, Ag Renewable Resources received a 57 percent return on that 2008 survey.

“We certainly don't want to take anybody's participation for granted so we will call each farmer,” said Bishop.

The survey was conducted, he added, to find out if local farmers were interested in participating in this digester process.

“We got a large number of people to reply,” he said about the percentage received back. “…We were pretty excited about the amount of interest. We were very surprised and it really helped us to make our decision to move forward.”

Commissioner Irene Wyatt asked if the plant operator would have to have a specific college degree in order to manage the facility?

Bishop said, “They will have to be good at the logistics associated with coordinating pick ups and making sure the grid power is…running smoothly there. They will definitely have to have some technical expertise in the science arena.”

Ms. Wyatt also asked if poultry farmers were on a staggered clean-out cycle and, if so, how that timing would impact the facility?

Bishop said, “Right now, a lot of chicken farms are staggered because one will get rid of the chickens and another one will be taking some new ones in. The clean-outs are somewhat staggered for the benefit of Tyson. To Tyson's benefit, since there is basically one contract for chicken houses in the area, it works out really well for us… They are helping manage that for us right now.”

Later, Vice Chairman Dr. Bill Burger requested clarification from Sorrell related to the County's right to conduct testing at the facility.

“The County has the right to conduct studies of the soil etc. and as long as they are in compliance we pay for it but if they are out of compliance, they pay for it?” asked Dr. Burger about where the payment would come from for the testing.

After all of the information was provided, the Planners then voted unanimously to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that they approve the presented conditional use permit with the revised conditions and pending legal review for Ag Renewable Resources.