The waste-to-energy company that last month announced plans to open a factory on South Cool Spring Street in the Campbell Avenue area is looking for another site in Fayetteville, and one that isn’t near people’s homes, company CEO Scott Gallagher told CityView on Monday.
In the meantime, former Cumberland County Commissioner Charles Evans has organized a community meeting for residents to learn more about the project and organize to try to stop it. This will be at 6 p.m. Thursday at Second Missionary Baptist Church of Fayetteville, 552 Old Wilmington Road.
Gallagher said he plans to appear at the meeting.
Waste Energy Corp. previously said it wants to open a plastic-to-diesel fuel factory in Fayetteville that will use heat to convert up to 30 tons of recycled plastic per day into diesel fuel. The process, called pyrolysis, does not burn the plastic. Instead, high heat in an oxygen-free environment breaks the plastic down so that the diesel fuel can form from it.
The diesel would then be sold to customers who could use it for vehicles or other energy needs, Gallagher said.
The plant would employ about 75 people, with most paid salaries of $60,000 to $80,000, he previously told CityView.
Proposed plant has some people worried
Opposition to the plant, led by Evans, has begun percolating because Waste Energy Corp. initially planned to install this project in a warehouse at 555 South Cool Spring Street. This is is in a lower income part of town with a majority Black community, the U.S. Census Bureau says.
Now, Gallagher said, that site may still receive the recycled plastic, which he said would be collected from community garbage sources to divert it from landfills. But the pyrolysis processing of the plastic into diesel fuel would occur at Waste Energy Corp.’s other site.
Waste Energy has a location in mind for the additional site, Gallagher said, but he declined to disclose it. He said it would not be near homes.
“We’ve explored a whole bunch of different areas all over the city,” he said. “And there’s a lot of heavy industrial space that’s true heavy industrial, with no residential around there.”
Gallagher said the plant’s emissions would meet European environmental regulations, which he said are tougher than American regulations.
“We’re breathing the air there. I’m going to be there a lot. My partner’s going to be there. He’s got a degree in environmental science,” he said. “Air quality’s hugely important to us.”
At the same time, “We’re not looking to force anything through that the community we’re operating in doesn’t want,” he said.
Heavy industrial zones border residential zones
The South Cool Spring Street site’s proximity to homes led to Evan’s concerns. The property is zoned for heavy industrial use, but it adjoins and is near property zoned for residential use, according to Fayetteville’s zoning map.
Google satellite views show there are about 30 single family homes within 1,000 feet, a Habitat for Humanity-built neighborhood within 2,000 feet, and apartments in Fayetteville’s Hope VI project — a $113 million, 750-unit community for lower income individuals and families — 2,000 to 3,500 feet away.
Evans had questions about whether emissions from the factory would be harmful to its neighbors.
Even though Gallagher said the pyrolysis processing plant won’t be near homes, Evans still opposes it.
Other neighborhoods in Fayetteville suffer because they are near industrial plants, he said. He cited the homes near the Fay Block plant off Ramsey Street, where residents have lodged complaints about cement dust, and an ethanol transportation facility off Murchison Road.
“If you look at all these communities, they’re older, minority communities,” Evans said. “And I don’t think that any community should be subjected to that type of endangerment — possible endangerment — to their community.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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The risks to our nearby communities and to our city far outweigh any positives……this is not a good fit for Fayetteville. We’ve experienced enough poisoning of our air, land, animals , river….no more. Too many potential dangers with this type of process, possibility of explosions, cancer causing contaminants in the air, land, very nearby creek, very close to the community garden…..hard no.
We don’t want it in Cumberland County we have enough to deal with Chemours poisoning us all. I am still on bottled water as I’m sure many are that are contaminated.. why try to put another when you haven’t fixed the problem. I live in Cedar Creek east of the river. We’re still fighting for good drinking water and our lively hoods.