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Biomass plant rejected said the burden n of oleo( was on gy Falcon, and the waste-to-energy Supervisors voice firm just didn't provide a convinc- ContinuedfromB-t ing enough argument that the environmental fears tion because it depends on agri- Planning Commission:erred when cultural waste to function. it rejected the application. By Christopher Woodard "We think ver definite) After the hearing, Hoblitzell The Stockton Record there's a demand and a need fora said he didn't know what Falcon San Joaquin County supervisors liked Energy will do with .the 57-acre q ty p facility like this,"said James liob- parcel it owns or whether his firm the idea of a biomass plant that could litzell IV, a general partner with will try for a permit at a different convert agricultural waste into fuel pel- Falcon Energy. location. lets, but they didn't like the idea that burning oil would be used in the proc- But the supervisors weren't Everyone supports the idea of ess. swayed. waste recovery plants, but no- By a 5-0 vote, the supervisors Thurs- body wants them in their back- Supervisor Douglass W. Wilhoit yard,he said. day upheld a July 13 decision by the county Planning Commission rejecting. Falcon Energy's plans for the $5 million biomass plant on Stockton's southeast- ern edge. "It's our earth. It's our environment, and we have to be very careful," said Supervisor William N.Sousa. The board also was concerned that the plant appears to be an industrial op- eration, but-Falcon Energy proposed building it on 57 acres of agriculturally `zoned land at.the southeast corner of Mariposa and Austin roads. A dozen neighbors argued against the plant, saying it would overburden Mari- posa Road with truck traffic, create a po- tential fire hazard and pollute the atmo- sphere with burning waste oil. f Ruth Pilkington complained that the area already has two garbage dumps and two prisons and doesn't need a biomass plant. "Southeast Stockton is fast becom- ing a dumping ground for facilities no one else wants,"she said. Falcon proposed building a plant ca- pable of grinding up 720 tons of agricul- tural waste a day. The plant also would take in as much as 4.3 million gallons of waste oil a year. The oil, which would come from agri- cultural equipment,would be used to dry the biomass mulch and turn it into fuel briquettes or feed pellets. Only 10 per- cent of the oil coming into the plant would be burned.The rest would be sold to other recycling firms. Representatives of Falcon Energy told the board the plant would improve air quality in the Valley by reducing agricul- tural burning in the fields and give farm- ers a place to get rid of waste oil, rather than dumping it on the ground. They also argued that the proposed plant is essentially an agricultural opera- See PLANT,B-3