The Wiregrass Power LLC biomass facility was supposed to have met a number of project goals established by the Economic Development Agreement (EDA) between the company and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority by April 1, 2011. According to Allen Ricketts, Industrial Authority project manager, those goals still have yet to be met.

The specific goals in the agreement were that a “finalized engineering procurement construction contract” would be ready by March 31. By April 1, the company was supposed to have finalized both a power purchase/transmission agreement along with a wastewater/biosolids agreement.

“They were looking to accomplish these goals and they are still in the window,” said Ricketts. “They have not been completed, but they are in progress.”

Wiregrass LLC is currently in talks with the City of Valdosta to finalize their purchase of approximately 750,000 gallons of gray water from the Mud Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Negotiations between the company and a Georgia utilities provider are in progress, but also have not been completed.

“These agreements are made with utilities under a non-disclosure clause, due to the competitive nature of utilities and pricing for energy sources,” said Ricketts.

The company could begin construction without these agreements, but Ricketts believes that the power purchaser agreement is the most important one.

“That’s the one we have our eye on the most,” said Ricketts. “If they can’t do that, then they don’t really have anybody to sell the electricity to and I would not expect them to move forward with site preparation until they have finalized this agreement.”

While the company has hired a consulting engineer in finalizing the conceptual engineering plans, they still haven’t decided upon a company to handle the construction of the project.

According to Ricketts, this is not the first timeline that has been developed for the biomass facility. A change was made to the original plan to accommodate for the company to apply for a Georgia Environmental Finance Authority grant that would provide an additional $500,000 in funding, most of which would be used towards the construction of the Wiregrass Solar, LLC facility.

“We want to get as much alternative energy here as we can,” said Ricketts. “We granted them an extension and have set June 1, 2011 as beginning date for construction of the biomass facility.”

 Ricketts believes that these goals on the EDA are not set-in-stone, but must be adjusted depending on the situation.

“When the initial planning was taking place in 2006 and 2007, the world was different and now we have a different economic climate,” said Ricketts. “We have to look at that. There’s nothing unique about this, all projects have some flexibility.”

“If you become too rigid and inflexible, they may look at you say that they’ll just go somewhere else.”

According to Ricketts, the Industrial Authority has no part in the company procuring the various agreements and contracts that are involved with the EDA, but have helped them make the needed connections with city and county government officials.

Ricketts also believes that any concerns raised in the community about the project have not had an impact on the project meeting timeline goals.

“With regard to citizen concerns about air quality emissions or other concerns that they have raised, it would not have an impact on these agreements, because the design of the facility is governed by the Air Quality Permit,” said Ricketts.

According to the Air Quality permit for the Wiregrass Plant, any change made to the specifications already brought before the Environmental Protection Division will subject the permit to possible suspension.

To receive another extension for the EDA, Wiregrass LLC is required to submit a formal request and would only receive the extension after further due diligence on the part of the Authority.

“The EPA air permit is pretty set-in-stone. No one has told me that (citizen concern) has caused them a problem with going forward. Right now, the company has not asked for an extension and my expectation is that they will begin construction on June 1.”