APA approved new wood-pellet plant

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Michael Lemza reviewed final details of permit approval with APA staff planner Colleen Parker Thursday at APA headquarters after receiving a permit to expand his pallet business to manufacture wood pellets. (Staff Photo/Kim Smith Dedam)

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May 14, 2009

By KIM SMITH DEDAM The Press Republican Thu May 14, 2009, 05:29 PM EDT

RAY BROOK — The Adirondack Park Agency unanimously approved a new wood-pellet manufacturing plant to be built in Keeseville.

The Essex Box & Pallet Co., owned by Michael Lemza, gained a permit Thursday to expand operations, recycling its scrap wood and sawdust to make compacted wooden fuel.

The one-quarter-inch fuel pellets look a little like rabbit food and are designed as fuel for ultra-efficient heating systems.

It will be the first wood-pellet plant built in the Adirondack region.

And it’s the second APA permit Lemza has received for his business, located in the Keeseville Industrial Park.

FITS APA GOALS

Staff planners told commissioners the project fit the APA goals for sustainability, efficiency and manufacturing.

APA Chairman Curt Stiles asked Lemza what were likely the top business challenges ahead.

“Raw materials,” Lemza answered, because sawmill industries are down to minimum production levels right now.

A second risk is the home-heating cycle, which Lemza said he plans to counteract by providing wood pellets to larger business users, such as colleges.

The company will not sell the furnaces, just the fuel, which Lemza said is in high demand with little regional supply.

Only a few companies in Vermont have also begun to make the compressed wooden fuel, he said.

NOISE LEVELS

Commissioner Richard Booth asked about noise levels in the manufacturing process.

The equipment, including a kiln, 40-foot emissions stacks and a drying silo, tests at 72 decibels, a noise level somewhere between normal conversation and the sound of a telephone dial tone, APA staff planner Colleen Parker told the board.

The new facility is also being built farther away from the residence closest to existing Box & Pallet operations.

Balloon tests done at the new site showed no visual impact from points either along the Ausable River or Interstate 87.

PERMIT COSTS

APA Commissioner Arthur Lussi asked Lemza how much cost the APA application added to the permit process.

Lemza did not provide an exact figure.

“It definitely was an expense putting it together,” he said.

Much of the analysis for review is coordinated by APA staff.

In an interview after the meeting, Lemza spoke highly of their efforts.

“They’ve (APA) been more than helpful. In two permits, I’ve never seen any issues.”

FINANCING NEEDED

The new pellet industry will be run with state-of-the-art computer system in a plant requiring a capital investment of more than $2 million.

“Most of that being equipment,” explained Lemza, a mechanical engineer originally from Port Henry.

“We are still working toward financing to make it happen. This is the last permit I needed to go.”

Banks are in a “very conservative” lending mode, Lemza said. “We’re not there yet.”

But APA approval gives the project a development green light.

JOBS

Once built, the plant will add four or five new jobs per work shift, along with income for area loggers and lumber companies.

The APA permit allows it to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Lemza said.

Essex Box & Pallet property occupies 14.4 acres beside a steep bank on the Ausable River and is within 800 feet of the Adirondack Northway.

It is zoned in the Adirondack Park for Moderate Intensity Use, with a small corner zoned Hamlet.

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at:

kdedam@pressrepublican.com