New plant causes stink with neighbors
By Donnie A. Lucas
A new Albany business located adjacent but outside of the city limits has been causing quite a stink with neighboring residents.
Numerous reports and complaints about an odor of decaying animals among other descriptions have been reported by residents on the north and east sides of Albany, and the group believes it is being caused by a new rendering plant.
Texas Renewables located on U.S. Highway 180 next to Fox Tank, but just outside the city limits, is reportedly operating a protein conversion facility that “converts animal plasma into a dried protein additive to be used in products such as organic fertilizer and organic pet food.”
County judge Bob Skelton said Monday that a group of local citizens has requested to be on the agenda at the June 28 commissioners court meeting to voice concerns.
“I know that a complaint has been filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), and they are investigating,” Skelton said. “This situation may already be grandfathered, but we need to come up with regulations to prevent this in the future.”
The judge said that he contacted one of the managing partners of the company, David Dixon, to make the company aware of local Fandangle dates and the influx of visitors in Albany.
Attempts by the News to contact both Dixon and local manager Shaun Garcia for comment on this story went unanswered.
Several residents on the north and east sides of Albany have described the smell as unbearable.
“It smells like a dead animal,” elementary school principal John Gallagher said. “It is a really bad smell. The kids can’t play outside, and we can’t cook on the grill in the yard.”
Gallagher said that the odor is not continuous but occurs at random times.
A neighbor a couple of blocks to the east, Matt Bellah, agrees that the smell is intolerable.
“It’s awful – nobody wants to go out in the yard and smell that. It’s nasty,” Bellah said. “I have talked to the manager a few times and was told that this is a testing period to work the bugs out. They are aware that it smells.”
Bellah added that the plant manager said that the process is supposed to be nearly undetectable with the filtering system that is in place.
“This definitely is a real issue, and it’s going to have to get fixed,” Bellah said.
Resident Alan Heirman says that he is concerned about the effects the discharge might have on residents.
“Mary and I both have lung problems, and it drives us inside when it starts,” Heirman said. “My wife has only 50 percent lung capacity due to damage from the coronavirus,and I have asthma.”
He added that occurrence of the smell is not consistent.
“Some days are worse than others, depending on the direction of the wind,” he said. “I am keeping a daily record now to track it. I’m trying to find information on the long-term effects of this.”
Several of those affected said they searched their property trying to find a dead animal near their homes when the smell was first noticed.
Darla Cotter, who lives just to the east of the Bellah home, said she is also keeping track.
“I understand that this is just the testing stage and they could ramp up production 10-fold,” she said. “This type of business just does not need to be adjacent to the city.”
She cited environmental concerns, water usage, and possible run-off issues.
“I think they had good intentions,” Cotter said. “They evidently bought into the technology that this wouldn’t produce smells, from what I have been told.”
Texas Renewables Group, LLC filed an application with the City of Mineral Wells last summer to establish the same or similar operation there. The application included a detailed report prepared for Texas Renewables explaining the details of the process.
While the application for a zone change was approved by the zoning board, the city council unanimously rejected application.
Being a much smaller community and more sparsely populated county, no zoning or local environmental regulations exist locally except what is in force through the TCEQ.
Reportedly, one or more investors in the company were familiar with the area through hunting.
According to the process outlined in the Mineral Wells application a year ago, the plant is a protein conversion facility that has liquid blood shipped in a tanker truck to undergo the process to produce the protein supplement powder or blood meal.
According to the Mineral Wells application: “The liquid blood collected from the harvest facilities will be delivered to the Texas Renewable Group, LLC facility via tanker truck, where it will be off-loaded, and held in storage tanks. The liquid blood will then be pumped through a live steam coagulator using a progressive cavity pump. The steam coagulator will introduce steam to the liquid blood, raising the temperature of the liquid blood to 220°F. The heating of the liquid blood will neutralize the material, killing the bacteria and solidifying the solids.
“During this process, a decanter will separate the plasma, or stick water, from the heavies, or blood solids. The stick water will be captured in a holding tank, and later used in composting and/or land treatment applications. The blood solids will discharge from the solid end of the decanter and be conveyed to a hammer mill. The hammer mill will decrease the size of the blood solid to assure consistent flow and size.
“The material will then be conveyed to a rotary drum dryer, where 92% of the moisture content will be removed. The resulting vapor will be incinerated via burner to eliminate any odors.
“The resulting blood meal will exit the drum dryer and be conveyed to a super sack container system for packing.
“Finished blood meal has many commercial uses including as a livestock dietary supplement, pet food additive and as an organic fertilizer. The primary market that Texas Renewable Group, LLC, will focus on initially will be the pet food market.
“The growing feed industry is one of the major factors driving the growth of the blood meal market and will be the focus of Texas Renewable Group, LLC.”
Attempts to verify if the process and by-products presented in the Mineral Wells application are the same as the local production plant went unanswered.
Again, attempts by the News to contact the company for comment have been fruitless.
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