Letter to the Editor: Bill Pitt

At their regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 7, Iredell County commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a zoning change request for an eight-acre portion of a farm on Snow Creek Road. The request was to shift the eight acres from R-20 ( Single Family Residential) to M-2 (Heavy Manufacturing) Conditional Use, for establishing a biodiesel refinery.

The request was approved over the objections of 72 of the neighbors to the site who attended the meeting and felt that it would be safer for all concerned to locate the refinery in one of the many already established industrial parks in Iredell County, where appropriate roads and other infrastructure are already in place.

According to the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Idaho, as of January of this year, there were approximately 100 commercial scale biodiesel refineries in the United States. Within the last 12 months there have been at least three devastating fires or explosions and fires at such facilities, some involving loss of life, some completely destroying the biodiesel operation. Catastrophic fires have been set off by static electricity, by welding, by a spark from faulty wiring, among other causes.

A chance that such a fire would take place at one of every 33 refineries or better sounds like risky odds. Just imagine if we were considering which of 33 gas stations was going to blow up next.

The odds become riskier still when you consider that the closest volunteer fire department to the proposed site is Trinity, which is approximately four miles away. The nearest full time fire department is Statesville Fire Station No. 2, 12 miles away, and the nearest hazmat team is at Mooresville Station No. 3, 34 miles away.

How long would it take Trinity or either of the others to muster a properly equipped team and get it on site in the event of a fire? How much loss of life or property could result? In the event of a fire and explosion, how much hazardous material would be spilled into one of Iredell County's most important watersheds before help could arrive to control the flow of liquid pollutants?

The fact that the proposed refinery won't be manned 24/7 only increases the potential for a disaster.

Accounts of the biodiesel plant fires were entered into the public record at the commissioners' meeting, but the commissioners chose to ignore them in their decision-making process.It evidently appeared to them perfectly reasonable to locate a refinery using volatile materials in a non-industrial, remote part of the county, far removed from the safety infrastructure which could provide assistance, when it was needed.

It does not, however, appear perfectly reasonable to the neighbors to this proposed refinery, who believe that Heavy Industry should be in industrial parks , which are designed to best meet the requirements of such applications.

What were the commissioners thinking? They were thinking about the economic benefit of the few, not the safety of the many who live in the area of the proposed refinery.

If you believe that the commissioners, zoning ordinances, and the Iredell County Land Use Plan are supposed to protect the Health, Safety, and Welfare of the public, join us at North Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life as we oppose this narrow and short sighted decision.

For more information, write us at NINFRL, 991 Snow Creek Road, Statesville, NC, 28625.

Bill Pitt
Statesville