Opponent: Refinery project might really be a landfill Company dismisses charge as 'preposterous' Sioux City Journal DAKOTA DUNES – Jason Quam, an Elk Point native and president of a privately funded opposition group, Citizens Opposed to Oil Production, said Tuesday Hyperion Resources of Dallas wants 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" instead of the 400,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery for which it has filed a zoning application. Quam made the allegations at a press conference at a Dakota Dunes hotel on Tuesday afternoon. He claimed planned development zoning could also be used for a landfill or gravel mining, something the law does not allow, according to refinery supporters, who held their own press conference following Quam's. The Dallas-based Hyperion responded to Quam's charge of a landfill with a statement later in the day. "The notion is simply preposterous," it said, "and demonstrates how out-of-touch the opponents are." Hyperion conceded that several of its officers are "invested and active with several companies, including one that previously attempted to site a landfill ... that is not the case here." A public hearing on the company's zoning application is set for 7 p.m. this evening at the Elk Point-Jefferson High School in Elk Point, S.D. In his half-hour presentation, Quam also raised the specters of a coal-fired power plant, manufacturing plant and even housing, as possible uses if the zoning is granted. He also said the company's executives may have experience in the oil business, but not in running a refinery, something Hyperion rebutted as well. It said several of its executives are award winners in refinery roles, including Corky Frank, who has 40 years experience, much of it on the refining side. Quam gave each reporter a 22-page booklet he made up to bolster his allegations. The book included Hyperion's own profiles of its top executives and copies of four short forms copied from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality Web. They showed that companies that were apparently Hyperion subsidiaries had either owned or applied to construct several sanitary landfills in Texas between 1987 and 1994. He said the nearby railroad could be used to carry garbage from the East Coast, which is experiencing a shortage of landfill capacity. "A 4,000-acre garbage dump with rail access will become a very valuable piece of property," Quam said. Quam also questioned where the money for the refinery, estimated by Hyperion to be a $10 billion project, would come from. Dennis Melstad, president of Dakota Dunes Development, attended both press conferences and said that no one could figure out how Dakota Dunes would be financed either, when rezoning was sought for that planned community. Hyperion's statement said that the company "and its fellow investors are perfectly positioned to finance" the refinery. It pointed out that it has already invested a substantial amount of money assembling its team, in engineering and environmental planning and logistical work, in addition to the land purchase options. And, it said, "Hyperion has no intentions -- none -- of selling the Hyperion Energy Center, now or in the future." Because the refinery will include an "integrated gasification combined cycle" plant which will use the petroleum coke by-product to make electricity and steam, it refers to the project as an Energy Center. Quam, who said he started COOP last fall, declined to name contributors when asked by refinery supporters. He said the private organization is not required to report donations, but said that Sierra Club is not involved "yet." J.B Mercer, former Union County commissioner Dan Lederman and land use attorney Jeana Goosman, all Union County residents, rebutted Quam's landfill scenario. Goosman said the company's zoning application clearly calls for the land to revert to its previous zoning, agriculture, if the company does not build the proposed refinery. Mercer charged that 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 zoning application. "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 characterized as an "attack ad mailed to 8,000 or 10,000 people." |
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