by PAUL RAYNER

If all goes well, a local community and producers from a wide area will see the benefits of a new development.

Hartney is the chosen site for a proposed ethanol plant. The environmentally friendly fuel or fuel additive made from grain is seen as a major economic boost on many levels and is pushed by governments as the wave of the future. Those involved in the Hartney proposal saw it as a good opportunity.

“I guess it has been in the works for about ten months,” explained Mark Vandaele of Clean Country Resources, the company involved in the ethanol proposal. “We were watching the industry develop, and a group got together and asked ‘why not participate?’ It started with a few heads around a table.”

As Vandaele stressed, Clean Country Resources is a privately owned company, not a cooperative. There will be opportunities for both local investment and that from venture capitalists. Financial involvement from larger capital firms is sought, but they are not interested in being controlled by a larger company.

Why Hartney? Vandaele said there are many important factors involved in site selection, including access to both water for operation and rail facilities for both receiving the raw produce needed for the creation of ethanol and shipping the final product and by-products to market. The community has both, as well as enthusiastic support from both the Town and the surrounding RM of Cameron.

“The joint councils have been very supportive. They have done a lot of work and are a very forward looking bunch.”

Although some things may not be carved in stone at this point, Vandaele said they were looking at a plant that would produce around 50 million US gallons of ethanol per annum. He said that is the standard size for such an undertaking, and it has to deal with the realities of economies of scale.

“You can be either too small or too large,” he explained. “You have to be large enough to be viable, but not larger than you can be. There is the grain you need to secure and the by-product you need to sell and there is only so much market. That size is the best to balance that.”

Clean Country Resources has identified the need for more than 20 million bushels of grain annually to produce this much ethanol. Presently, they have advertised to get producers to register their farms with the proposed plant, to produce the two row feed barley and feed peas they intend to use. They are also advertising to see how many livestock farmers would be interested in the distillers dried grains and wet cake by-product the system would be producing to use as feed.

Vandaele said at this point, they are really testing the availability of resources.

“It is a bit of a fact-finding mission at this point,” he explained. “This should give us a good indication of the grain available.”

They are also in the midst of obtaining the necessary permits in areas like water use and air quality. Satisfying these is both necessary and desirable.

“We’re being very diligent. We want to walk before we run. We don’t want to cause anyone any problems. We want all the concerns addressed.”

They are hoping if the permits are all received in time, they can start construction of the plant in the spring of 2007. Vandaele explained the construction would take around 12-14 months. There will be the training of personnel during that period, test runs and the like. If all goes well on all fronts, including investment, they hope they will be up and running by 2008.

“There is a lot of work involved in this but we are well on our way.”

Although nothing in life is completely definite, Vandaele is confident the plant will become a reality.

“Barring problems in the permitting, I am sure this will go ahead. There has been grower interest, we have identified markets and have had excellent feedback.”

The benefits of such a development are many fold. For one, the plant should employ between 30-40 full time workers. As well, the construction process itself will provide a considerable boon to contractors. There will be maintenance work, and the overall spin off throughout the economy of the Southwest.

Of course, it will help strapped producers as well. As Vandaele related, farmers have struggled with low commodity prices and high-energy costs, as well as the loss of the Crow Rate. The proposed development would be a strong help on many levels.

“I’m absolutely convinced that biofuels will be the savior of the industry,” Vandaele stated. “Adding value added products locally is very important to producers. The high-protein by-product is good for the livestock industry. It will benefit grain producers, livestock producers and local communities.”

“The benefits are too numerous to list.”