Amaizeingly Green restarts production
Posted By MORGAN IAN ADAMS
Posted 6 months ago
Amaizeingly Green is about to give it another go.
Employees at the plant -- which manufactures a variety of products, including ethanol, fertilizer, and pet food ingredients--began the process of restarting on Monday, with the hope that the more than $650,000 in new equipment will take care of odour and noise problems that have plagued residents in the east end of town.
Plant manager Martin Kazmir said the four-week shutdown would have cost the company about $1.2 million -- but the end result should make it worth it.
"We created the difficulties with the odour and noise, and we just want to be invisible," said Kazmir.
Kazmir said it will take a couple of days to make sure everything is up and running properly, and there won't be any real processing of corn until likely today (Wednesday).
"We are trying to be very controlled and cautious (in the start-up)," said Kazmir.
The shutdown is the result of a Ministry of Environment order issued earlier this year to deal with odours and noise -- and should be the end of a nearly three-year process to get the plant to comply with the original conditions under which it was allowed to establish an ethanol facility in the former Nacan starch plant.
The plant recently pled guilty to several charges laid by the ministry and the Town of Collingwood, and paid out more than $340,000 in fines.
Kazmir said plant officials put together an odour abatement program involving the MOE, plant employees, and outside consultants, and he's confident the work of the last four weeks should prove itself when the plant restarts at 8 a. m. on Monday.
"The confidence in the program is the confidence I'm getting from our outside consultants," he said. "And that raises my confidence."
However, he acknowledged that it won't be known if everything works properly until 8:01.
"No matter what it is, a manufacturing plant, a car, there is some uncertainty (in starting it up)," he said.
Kazmir said there will be "third party" consultants on site to monitor, and employees have also received additional training in order to keep a closer eye on the process.
Under the start-up protocol and air modeling and monitoring plan submitted by the plant and OKed by the MOE, there will be additional odour sampling and monitoring during start-up and for a period of up to a month to confirm the effectiveness of the odour abatement plan.
Kazmir added there was also a "spring clean-up in July," as employees scrubbed, pressure-washed and disinfected the facility from top to bottom; the plant was able to avoid layoffs during the shutdown.
"We are excited and confident that recently-installed odour abatement equipment, when fine-tuned and fully commissioned, will be the platform for a fresh new start for our relationships with the local community. I am absolutely committed to getting it right," said Kazmir.
With regard to noise abatement measures, a silencer has been installed on a piece of equipment that emits a gasping, rush-like noise (referred to technically as an "impulse" noise) on top of one of the plant's silos. It is projected that the silencer, installed on a voluntary basis, will decrease the noise emitted from this source by more than half.
