Neighbors
speak favorably about planned oil refinery
Yuma
Sun ROLL - Denny Roth isn't opposed to the proposed oil refinery, he just has some questions, considering the plant would be a close neighbor. "You know the old adage, 'Not in my backyard'? Well, this will be right in my front yard," said Roth, whose house at County 6th Street off Avenue 50E would be adjacent not only to the refinery site but to the very corner where the buildings would be located. "I know we need the refinery," he said during a neighborhood meeting Wednesday evening at Antelope High School to gather public input on Arizona Clean Fuels' application to change the site's land use designation to allow heavy industry such as the refinery. "I'm not opposed," Roth said. "I just want to make sure I'm protected." For example, he said, "I wonder if I would have a 100,000-gallon storage tank in my front yard that might blow up." To which Glenn McGinnis, CEO of Arizona Clean Fuels, responded: "We'll work with you. We don't want to be any closer than you do." A major land use amendment to the Yuma County 2010 Comprehensive Plan is required before Arizona Clean Fuels can pursue rezoning, said Anne Eichberger, long-range planning manager for the Yuma County Department of Development Services. Wednesday's neighborhood meeting was the first step in that process. The oil refinery will be the subject of a second such meeting at 5:30 p.m. today at Aldrich Hall on the west side of the Yuma County Department of Development Services, 2351 W. 26th St. The neighborhood meetings are not public hearings, Eichberger said, but less formal gatherings to begin hearing comments and concerns. The next step will be a public hearing in front of the Yuma County Planning and Zoning Commission at 5 p.m. Oct. 6. The Yuma County Board of Supervisors will then have a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 27 and act on the application. An estimated 50 people attended Wednesday's meeting. Several said they're in favor of the refinery and think it would benefit their small eastern Yuma County communities. Others had questions about such things as flood control of the area, access to surrounding property and whether the refinery would result in lower gas prices. Some of those questions will be answered as the project moves into the rezoning process if the amendment is approved. It will be during the rezoning and permitting processes when more specific designs and site use plans will be required, McGinnis said. For now, the item on the table would change only the land use plan. As for gas prices, he joked: "For you a special price." More seriously, he explained that the gas market is set by supply and demand. "I don't know that we would drive the price down significantly, but we will be another source to perhaps impact it a little." One man asked what he and others could do to help make the refinery a reality. "There will be public meetings and hearings," McGinnis said. "Come out and support the project." McGinnis said he is hopeful the final hurdles can be cleared by the latter part of 2009 so construction can begin. According to the latest timeline, the refinery would be ready to start up by late 2012. Plans call for the plant to produce 150,000 barrels a day of high-quality gasoline products from crude oil supplies from Mexico and Canada. The gas would be marketed in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Joyce Lobeck can be reached at lobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.
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