Fast track to ethanol
Ground work, foundations, move toward completion at Heron Lake BioEnergy

By Rahn Larson, Cottonwood County Citizen

The skyline just east of Heron Lake is about to see major changes.

For months motorists passing the 50-million-gallon Heron Lake BioEnergy site have seen very little, other than bulldozers and dirt-movers. What many haven’t seen is all of the concrete and underground work at the site of the $104-million ethanol plant.

Now that those are moving toward completion, construction is starting to move vertically, rather than horizontally. "We are right on schedule," said Bob Ferguson Heron Lake BioEnergy president. "All of the big heavy dirt work is done at the plant site. Things are moving along."

Right now, crews have started the first of four steel fermentation tanks. Meanwhile other workers are getting ready to place auger castings under distillers grain silos. And, the foundations have been poured for the ethanol tank farm.

"A company will come in and build those the tanks," Ferguson said. "They will each hold 1.2-million gallons of ethanol. Plus there will be several smaller tanks for other products."

In addition, construction crews are starting to do the grade for the 100-car loop track. There will ultimately be two loops of railroad track, each capable of holding 100 grain cars. One loop is for shipping ethanol, the other for shipping distillers dried grain.

So when will the plant be finished? Ferguson pointed out that there are countless issues that can affect the completion date — everything from severe weather, to shipping delays to vendor delays. At this point, things appear to be on track for the plant to start grinding corn in the spring of 2007.

Big Changes Ahead

Meanwhile, people will see a lot happening at the site over the next couple of months."In the next 60 days the site will look a lot different than what it looks today," Ferguson said. "A lot of steel will go up. There are thousands of feet of concrete going in."Once the infrastructure is in, the skyline is going to change. We will have buildings going up with 40-foot sidewalls."

As Ferguson was speaking from his temporary office in downtown Heron Lake, workers from Buhler Construction of Butterfield, including subcontractors, were putting the finishing touches on the new Heron Lake BioEnergy office. Curb and gutter were being installed in the parking lot and carpenters were finalizing details inside."The new office should open during the first week of August," Ferguson said.

The timing is good because that’s exactly the time the new Heron Lake BioEnergy general manager will be coming on board. Ferguson said the company has received a verbal commitment for the job, but added that he isn’t quite ready to reveal the person’s name. "Once that person is on board, we can start the process to hire a plant manager," Ferguson said. "That person will help oversee the construction of the plant."

Ferguson estimates that the plant manager will be on staff sometime in September or October. After that, other personnel will be added. The plant will ultimately employ about 38 full-time workers.
Ferguson added that it will have an excellent pay scale.

"Our annual payroll will be, give or take, about $2 million or more," Ferguson said. "These are good paying jobs. We will have a good benefits package and state-of-the-art equipment."

Right now, the plant has 1,069 stockholders.

Court Sides With Plant

Meanwhile, Heron Lake BioEnergy received excellent news from the Minnesota Court of Appeals last week.

An environmental group has been fighting the efforts to open this coal-fired ethanol plant based on emissions concerns. Fourteen months ago the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency —after analyzing the project plans — authorized officials to move forward on construction.

"Basically, the Minnesota Court of Appeals said that the decision made by the MPCA stood in its entirety," Ferguson said. "The ruling was a 15-page document and the long and short of it is the judges are saying this plant has to meet the federal and state emission standard that has already been laid out. We knew we had to meet those standards when we started this project."

While the court decision was in limbo, work had started on every phase of the plant except the coal boiler and coal handling areas.

"Now we will move ahead on those areas as soon as the company that oversees that process is ready," Ferguson said. "I am sure that will be relatively soon."