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Lawsuit asks judge to sign off on ethanol plant

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published December 30, 2006

The developer seeking to build Florida's first ethanol plant wants a Hillsborough judge to rule on whether it can proceed with the $86-million project at Tampa's port.

Port Sutton EnviroFuels holds a lease option on 22 acres in an industrial area off U.S. 41 and permits from state environmental regulators.

But the company said in a lawsuit last week it is "uncertain" of its rights to build and operate the plant. EnviroFuels asked that a judge affirm the plant is a permissible use on the site and would not be nuisance to the public or neighbors.

The request came in a countersuit against PEL Laboratories, an environmental testing firm that filed for an injunction in September to stop construction of the plant.

PEL is surrounded on three sides by the proposed plant site. Gas emissions would spoil the delicate testing PEL conducts for the military and commercial customers, the company says.

The lab tests for such trace amounts of materials in soil and water samples that gas emissions from the plant would "drive it out of business," said Marion Hale, attorney for PEL.

EnviroFuels last week scrapped plans for a second plant at Port Manatee. The company couldn't come to terms with TransMontaigne Product Services, a fuel storage company, to sublease 20 acres needed for the project, port officials said.

The Tampa plant remains on track, Bradley Krohn, president of EnviroFuels, said in an interview last week.

The company will obtain the last of six permits it needs to start construction next month and should close on financing three months later, he said.

Designed to produce 44-million gallons of ethanol annually, the plant should be completed by mid 2008, Krohn said.

The company plans to distill ethanol from crops like corn, shipped by barge into the port. It would sell ethanol to a fuel distributor at the port to mix with gasoline.

U.S. EnviroFuels, predecessor to Port Sutton EnviroFuels, had said the plant would employ about 40 workers at salaries averaging about $50,000.

But what about PEL, asks company president Kevin Dunham. His firm has 35 full-time employees, plus a few part-timers, and has operated at the port for 16 years.

There's so much attention on alternative fuels, Dunham said, that the state and the port authority aren't taking a hard enough look at the plant proposal.

"Ethanol's the buzzword now," he said. "I don't know how much homework's been done to see both sides of the story."

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813226-3384.

[Last modified December 30, 2006, 00:01:09]