Local opposition delays decision on mine, gasification plant

For immediate release: January 4, 2008 Please Contact: Cindy Klein 701-483-2851 Derrick Braaten 701-221-2911

Stark County zoning board votes to table land use change

Dickinson--The small town of South Heart, North Dakota in Stark County, where open skies meet short grass prairie, is home to ranchers and other folks, many of whom don ’t think that a planned coal mine and gasification plant would make good neighbors.

At the January 3 public hearing of the Stark County Zoning Commission, residents packed the room and overwhelmingly expressed their concerns about the planned project. On the table was a request from Great Northern Power Development for a change to the county land use plan, from agricultural to industrial, to accommodate a lignite coal mine and gasification plant.

The only other gasification plant in the nation is near Beulah, North Dakota, about 70 miles northwest of South Heart.

Derrick Braaten, attorney for Dakota Resource Council (DRC), pointed out to the Commission a long-forgotten comprehensive land use plan to which the county is required to adhere when making such changes. Braaten said a coal gasification plant would meet some objectives in the county’s plan, but would go against others.

Braaten told the commissioners that it is their responsibility to consider environmental and other impacts to assure that their decision is in accordance with the comprehensive plan.

In addition, Braaten gave each commissioner a 111 page document from Iowa which a developer submitted to an Iowa county for a similar request, and compared it to Great Northern Power Development’s single sentence request to Stark County.

Mary Hodell, South Heart, a member of the Badlands Area Resource Council, an affiliate of DRC, presented a petition with about 550 signatures requesting that the county delay its decision based on the outcome of an environmental impact statement (EIS), not normally required under state law.

“Most people we have talked to have no idea what this project means for the community, either negative or positive,” said Hodell. “An Environmental Impact Statement will allow those concerns to be addressed and the public at large will have a chance to review it prior commencement of the project.”

Of special concern to many are potential impacts to the stunning badlands of the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, only 15 miles to the west.

Neil Tangen, who lives across the road from the proposed plant and mine, wondered aloud why the developer is asking for the zoning changes before it has gotten its operating permits from the state. “You’re putting the cart before the horse,” said Tangen.

The zoning commission voted 6-2 to table the decision until they are able to adequately review the legal issues that were raised.

###