ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY — Cattle would outnumber humans in this Upstate New York jurisdiction if a proposed 84,000-head beef finishing operation with integrated ethanol and meat production facilities goes ahead as proposed.

For the past two years, Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc., developer of a patented process that renders manure into combustible solids and a protein-rich byproduct, has been talking with officials about establishing the first full-scale adaptation of its technology in St. Lawrence County, bordering on Eastern Ontario.

In a November 12-2 vote, a committee of the Board of County Legislators gave tentative support to the project, estimated at between $170- and $210-million.

Transformed into solid fuel, manure from the huge herd would supply the energy needed by a 160-million-litre-year corn-based ethanol plant.

(Ironically, the plant may be supplied with corn through the Port of Ogdensburg — right across the river from the new 200-million-litre-a-year facility now under construction by GreenField Ethanol.)

Housed in open-sided barns at six satellite "module" farms — each with 14,000 head — the cattle would eat all of the distillers’ grains from the ethanol plant, eliminating the expense of drying the leftover feed and completing the firm’s "closed loop" concept.

No manure would be spread on the land, according to Bion Vice-President Jeff Kapell.

In addition to being consumed as energy, the cattle waste would yield a "single-cell 40 per cent protein material," which would be shipped off farm for use as a commercial fertilizer and fish feed, Kapell told The AgriNews.

A flow of water left at the end of the manure treatment process contains a roughly five per cent mix of nitrogen and phosphorous and "meets industrial surface water standards," he said.

The water would be flushed into man-made wetlands for further purification before being pumped onto approximately 200 acres of cropland at each satellite farm.

The locations of the satellite farms and the ethanol plant — which may be co-located at one of the sites — haven’t been determined yet.

"That remains to be seen. We’re looking across the county, and we’re negotiating with a number of opportunities. The final locations are contingent on a lot of things," Kapell said, mentioning contractual, shipping and other "logistical" arrangements that need to be worked out first. "Until we get a few more pieces in place, we can’t say, but we’re looking across the county and possibly into [neighbouring] Franklin County."

Bion itself won’t operate the livestock or ethanol facilities, nor a planned slaughterhouse catering to "premium" meat markets. Instead, the firm plans on leasing different aspects of the business to other corporate entities and investors specializing in those fields.

On the meat production side, "most of the interest has come from beef-cattle folks in California, not the commodity beef producers in the Midwest," offered Kapell, who likened Bion’s role in the enterprise to that of a shopping mall management firm.

Noting the "value of being in the North Country within 300 miles of 60-million people," he observed: "There’s just a huge set of opportunities. From our perspective, the value-driver is the marketplace."

The project would also spin off "a lot of agricultural activity" in the region, he said, pointing out that St. Lawrence County has 100,000 acres of fallow farmland.

Local farms and agri-businesses, including those on the Canadian side of the border, would be called upon to supply young cattle, hay and feed to the gigantic operation.

On the telephone from Colorado, Bion president Mark A. Smith told The AgriNews: "I expect there’ll be a lot of Canadian opportunities." He said the project had the potential to "reinvigorate" agriculture in northern New York.

Bion’s method of integrating ethanol and cattle production, using its waste processing and energy-capturing technology, "is part of the future of agriculture," Smith said.

While plans call for a Midwestern supply of corn at the ethanol plant, both Smith and Kapell foresaw opportunities for local corn producers as well.

"To the extent that we can source corn locally... we will do that," said Kapell, though he suggested that Eastern Ontario looks like a "corn deficient

area" — with demand for the locally grown crop already outstripping supply. However, he repeated, "We don’t preclude purchasing from local markets where possible."

The project is supposed to take a couple of years to get up and running, once all regulatory approvals are in place.

A step in that direction was set for Dec. 3, when the St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators, representing the area’s 110,000 residents, was set to vote on a previously passed Services Committee resolution on the Bion proposal. If green-lighted by the legislators, the County would set up a task force and work with the company towards "successful implementation."

Board Chair J. Patrick Turbett, who will select the taskforce members if the resolution is approved, told The AgriNews he was "sort of in the middle" on the issue.

While acknowledging possible economic benefits for the county — among the two or three poorest in the state — Turbett said he wanted the resolution modified to eliminate a reference to "tentative support." The taskforce would also look into environmental and water-usage concerns raised by critics of the proposal, he said.

"I’m not a farmer, and I don’t come from a farming background, and I think there’s a lot of concerns that have been raised. My job is to make sure the questions get answered."

"We will insist on public meetings and the like," he added.

The project would more than double the number of cattle in the county, where the largest single dairy farm currently has about 2,000 head, noted Turbett, who also expressed a bit of wonder at the idea of shipping corn and young cattle from the Midwest into Upstate New York.

"They’re going to bring cattle and corn here, and slaughter 500 head a day. Why wouldn’t you just put the cattle where the corn is, and ship the ethanol and meat from there?"

"They see a poor community that probably they could temp with jobs," said Louise Gava, member of a group of concerned citizens calling themselves the Bion Working Group, which formed in July.

"We’re an agriculturally-focused community, so we’re not going to bitch and complain about odour," said Gava, who pointed to the sheer size of Bion’s proposal as the main issue. "This wouldn’t be an issue if this thing was smaller," added Gava, who professed to being "a little nervous" about the upcoming Dec. 3 vote.

"Anyone should see this is a problem when the first time the county is hearing about it is when the resolution is being passed. That itself makes no sense."

But Kapell emphasized that the company isn’t looking for the county’s "blind endorsement," and isn’t interested in setting up in a "hostile" community, either.

"But if you can do it right, is this the kind of economic activity you want to see in this county?" he asked, describing the project as a "tremendous fit" for the area.

The company maintains that the project would create 200 direct jobs as well as 300 indirect positions. It has also released a recent report by a Clarkson University professor that found each of the satellite farms would be no smellier than a typical 400-head facility because the manure is never spread.