Penford growth implications to be explored

CEDAR RAPIDS - Health officials are neutral on a proposed expansion to the Penford Products plant near downtown Cedar Rapids, even as some business leaders raise questions about potential impacts of the project.

“We don't want to speculate on what they're going to put in,” said Shane Dodge, manager of Linn County Public Health's Air Quality Division. He said the department will weigh in once Penford applies for permits.

Dodge and other air quality experts were invited by Penford to attend three community meetings next week that will address the plant's plans to expand to neighboring Riverside Park (see list). Those health officials will answer what questions they can, Dodge said, but many unknowns remain - including whether the project will result in a net emissions increase or reduction.

Dodge said the health department will analyze emission calculations and other aspects of Penford's air quality construction permit applications. Permits are issued if the project can comply with National Ambient Air Quality Standards, he said, but the department's jurisdiction is limited to operating and emission limits and smokestack characteristics.

The City Council will decide whether to sell the 11.2-acre skate park to Penford, 1001 First St. SW. Penford's plans should be thoroughly vetted before that decision is made, said Tom Anderson, who just finished a term as board chairman for the Cedar Rapids Downtown District.

Anderson, a wealth management adviser who describes himself as pro-business, pointed to an $8 million outdoor riverfront amphitheater that will be built a short distance from Penford along the Cedar River.

“Do we want expanded industry next to that?” Anderson asked.

He also questioned how Penford knows that 25 jobs will be created if it doesn't know what the expansion entails.

Company representatives reiterated that they don't have a defined project for the site.

Penford creates starch for the paper industry, ethanol and biomaterial for industrial uses. But Tim Kortemeyer, Penford's president and general manager, said that with a downturn in the paper industry, it's looking into providing other biomaterials - still from corn - to replace petroleum-based materials.

Kortemeyer said if the expansion progresses, the plant would shut down other areas of processing so the net amount of emissions does not increase.

Tony Golobic, CEO of GreatAmerica Leasing Corp., a Cedar Rapids-based financing firm with an office downtown, said he is concerned about the message the expansion signals to downtown investors, as well as potential environmental effects.

“I don't think it's going to hurt this building one way or another,” he said of the GreatAmerica site, 625 First St. SE. “But it's going to hurt downtown. What message are we sending that we're giving up parkland to develop a factory downtown?”

The health department's Dodge and Tony Daugherty, a senior air pollution control specialist, said that as one of the major industries in Cedar Rapids, Penford generally performs well in emissions compliance.

Daugherty conducted its latest air quality compliance evaluation in June, a multiday inspection resulting in a 90-page report. He found Penford to be in compliance on hundreds of items evaluated. Penford did submit an excess emission report last summer but quickly corrected the problem once the source was found, the inspection noted, and no additional corrective action was required.

Emissions data for sulfur dioxide and other pollutants show that the plant was within National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Ideally, Penford's Kortemeyer said, the plant would not be located in the center of Cedar Rapids.

“If the city could come up with a half-billion dollars, we'd move out of downtown in a heartbeat,” he said.

FYI:

Penford is holding community forums on the purchase of Riverside Park at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16, at Taylor Elementary, 720 Seventh Ave. SW; at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, at CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, and at 5:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 18, at the Chamber of Commerce Boardroom, 424 First Ave. NE.