MIDDLETOWN — Now that gas prices are inching toward $4 per gallon, one wonders: What happened to the Pencor-Masada OxyNol proposal to build a waste-to-ethanol plant?
"We're ready to go as soon as we get the green light," said Tim Judge, Masada's vice president for external affairs and operations. "We're ready to go forward and complete the project."
Masada's permits are in place and its contract with the City of Middletown is still in effect.
The problem lies in issues that arose over the project's Dec. 9, 2008, completion date. Masada asked for more time after its founder, Daryl Harms, died in 2005. Middletown said no. Then, in its May 2007 progress report, Masada intimated that it might start with a pilot plant at its Dolson Avenue location on the site of the old Middletown landfill, and then expand to a full-sized waste-to-ethanol plant.
Concerned about the project financing, the city sued, charging breach of contract.
Masada filed a counterclaim for arbitration, saying the city and its officers became hostile and interfered with its ability to get financing and permits.
The claims were in state and federal court last year, and the courts removed the individual elected officials as defendants. Now, the case is in an arbitrator's hands.
"We're kind of just getting going in a substantive sense," said the city's lawyer for Masada dealings, Michael Murphy of Beveridge & Diamond. "My sense is that there'll be substantial progress in the next three or four months."
Masada has spent more than $40 million in this 12-year development phase. Judge said Masada still plans to build a full-scale plant that will turn 800 tons per day of municipal waste into 8½ to 10 million gallons per year of ethanol. Construction would employ 350 union workers; the completed plant would employ about 125 people.
