Wet, fire-scorched seed corn stored at Sinclair plant to add about $175,000 to demolition cost

CEDAR RAPIDS –  Five or six truckloads of stored, wet and fire-scorched seed corn will add an estimated $175,000 to the cost of demolishing the flood-and-fire-damaged, former Sinclair meatpacking plant, Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, reports.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying for the demolition, now in progress, at a cost that could reach $15 million, Eyerly said Thursday.

Eyerly said he sees no reason why FEMA would not pay for the additional new cost related to the seed corn, which had been stored at the plant, though he said FEMA has not yet agreed to pay the cost.

The corn belongs to BFC Gas and Electric Companies, which operates a gasification plant in southwest Cedar Rapids that burns, among other items, outdated seed corn.

Eyerly said about six truckloads of corn is now mingled with about 25,000 tons of asbestos-containing material at the demolition site.

The debris is being hauled to the nearby Mount Trashmore landfill site at a cost of $110 a ton for shipping and landfill fees. However, the landfill is not lined and so is not suitable for a mix that includes wet corn, which will leach into the soil, Eyerly explained.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, he added, has instructed that the material be shipped to a private landfill in Milan, Ill. This will add $7 a ton to the cost, or an estimated $175,000 in total costs.

Eyerly said the 25,000 tons of debris represents about 800 to 900 truckloads that must be shipped to Illinois because of the five or six truckloads of corn mixed into it.

He said he will ask the City Council on Aug. 10 to amend the demolition contract to include the new cost that comes with shipping to Illinois.

“FEMA has been a good partner, and we don't anticipate an issue,” he said.

Eyerly said Jeff Carter of BFC Gas and Electric Companies, which is headquartered in Ankeny, has not returned two calls from him, and Carter could not be reached by The Gazette on Thursday afternoon.

Eyerly said much of the seed corn at the Sinclair plant is scorched from two arson fires there and he said it looks like coffee beans, not corn.