BRI looks to sell back part of former incinerator site
Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008
A resolution to accept about an acre in the city's industrial park will be considered by the Fayetteville City Council on Tuesday.
If the resolution is approved, Bioengineering Resources Inc., 1650 E. Pump Station Road, will deed the land back to the city.
Stan Green, a consultant for BRI, said Thursday that the company bought the land in 1993.
BRI is primarily a research and development company in the area of biofuels with the primary research target being a cellulosic ethanol process.
Globalwarming 101. com defines cellulosic ethanol as ethanol that is manufactured from woody plant matter (cellulose ) from sources such as grasses, trees and agricultural waste.
Green said that after the company began construction of its pilot plant, it became aware that ash and possibly other material was deposited on the lot, which is adjacent to the former city incinerator site, where the city burned trash.
Mayor Dan Coody said the site was divided years ago into lots and sold as the city's industrial park.
"It made sense to us to put that property that BRI now owns back with the city incinerator site and let the city, who's really more qualified to manage things like that, handle it as part of the overall incinerator site," Green said.
He said the material is not harmful.
A 1993 letter from Cheryl Zotti, then the city's environmental affairs administrator, refers to an environmental assessment. She reported "that the soils in this area tested well below the parameters / regulations as defined by the Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology and Environmental Protection Agency."
Ray Boudreaux, the city's director of aviation and economic development, said the city has been working on cleaning up the site.
"They're going to give us that little piece of ground and we're going to go ahead and do it all at once," he said. "It's our responsibility from the old days."
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