Massive water pipeline proposed for Albion smelting plant

Source: Erie Times-News, Pa.迷你倉Jan. 02--ALBION -- A Canadian corporation is considering building a $360 million iron-smelting plant in Albion and Cranesville, which would create an estimated 150 jobs and 350 more in spinoff work in economically stressed western Erie County.A pivotal resource for the proposed plant -- part of the Erie Inland Port initiative -- is Lake Erie, 9.8 miles north of Albion.The plant would get its water not from the Albion Borough's overburdened municipal system, which draws from seven shallow wells.The plant's water supply -- in a project that would be one of the largest public-works developments in recent Erie County history -- would come from the lake, according to documents the Erie Times-News received from the state Department of Community and Economic Development in a request under the Right-to-Know Law.The Economic Development Corp. of Erie County, the architect of the Inland Port project, intends to build a $22.1 million system that will pipe water from Lake Erie underground to an elevated water tank and a water treatment plant in Albion. The system would originate 1,650 feet offshore from the mouth of Elk Creek, in Girard Township, where an intake pipe would draw as much as 5 million gallons of water a day from the lake."The proposed plant site has the transportation and electrical connections needs, and access to natural gas," said John Elliott, the Economic Development Corp.'s chief executive. "It does not have access to large volumes of water. This is what the pipeline will take care of."The new water system would help bring large-scale industry to Albion and eventually boost the existing water system for the borough's 1,500 residents, 13 percent of whom live below the poverty rate, according to the DCED documents."We cannot grow without water," said Albion Borough Councilman John Huya, 66, who serves on council's committee for water and sewer services. "There is a lot of land available around Albion, but we don't have enough water."The borough has a sewer treatment plant, which is expected to help process the wastewater from the factory, Huya said.The new water system's primary customer would be Grand River Ironsands, a partner of the North Atlantic Iron Corp., or NAIC, based in St. John's, Newfoundland, according to the DCED documents. The plant would be located in northeastern Albion, at the former Bessemer & Lake Erie rail yard, which stretches into Cranesville, the Economic Development Corp. wrote in the documents.NAIC, the documents show, is proposing an iron-smelting plant that would produce "high-quality pig iron" -- crude iron taken from a blast furnace and cast into molds and later remelted to make iron and steel products.The smelting process will require 1.8 million gallons of water a day for cooling, in addition to the plant's other needs, according to the DCED documents. The plant would use raw water, but the new system eventually would feature a treatment plant to supplement Albion's municipal water system, according to the documents.Depending on when NAIC announces its plans, construction of the water system could start as early as April 2015, according to the DCED documents, in which NAIC lists its employment estimates for the proposed plant. The Times-News in May 2012 first reported an iron ore company was interested in building a plant in western Erie County, but Elliott had declined to name the prospective company.He said last week he expects the company to announce its plans sometime in 2014.'Very attractive' siteThe water system for the plant will include a pump housmini storage on the lakeshore, near the mouth of Elk Creek. Installing the underground pipeline will require as many as 38 acres, according to the DCED documents, which provide a general path for the pipeline."The construction," according to the application, "will have to navigate crossings for nine streams, four railroads, two state highways and eight township or private roads."Albion's municipal water system is undergoing an $8 million renovation that includes new water lines and construction of a water tower to improve water pressure for the system's 741 residential and 69 nonresidential customers, who use a total of about 520,000 gallons of water daily, according to the DCED documents.The system's largest customer is the 2,312-inmate State Correctional Institution at Albion, which uses about 350,000 gallons of water a day, or about two-thirds of the Albion system's daily usage. Albion's existing system would be unable to meet the needs of the pig iron plant as well as the prison and Albion's residents, officials said."This project will bring a new half-million gallons of potable water a day to the Albion community," Elliott said. "In our conversations with the municipality early on, they said they did not have enough water capacity for their regular needs, let alone the ability to serve a large industrial customer."Neither Grand River nor North Atlantic Iron representatives responded to requests for comment. North Atlantic's vice president of business development, Kevin Kemper, affirmed the company's interest in Albion in a June 25 letter to Elliott included in the DCED documents."We find the Albion site very attractive given existing infrastructure, low regional energy prices, local availability of coal and lime and the region's market for pig iron," Kemper wrote.Elliott has pushed for the Albion site because of the availability of land, rail lines and roads needed for the factory, whose pig iron would be sold to steel mills and foundries. The Greater Erie Industrial Development Corp., an affiliate of the Economic Development Corp., is purchasing 240 acres in the Albion area to create business parks for the Inland Port.The pig iron plant "will be a win-win for the Albion area and the commonwealth," according to the Economic Development Corp.'s summary in the DCED documents. "Albion is still struggling to rebound after a destructive tornado ripped through the community more than two decades ago."Financing the systemThe Economic Development Corp. included the summary in an application for DCED funding for the water system. The Commonwealth Financing Authority in November awarded the Economic Development Corp. a $3 million Pennworks grant for the project.The corporation plans to get the rest of the money from, among other sources, an $8.5 million bond issue it would pay off with revenue from the new water system, mainly from the pig iron plant's purchase of water, according to the DCED documents.The water project and pig iron plant would provide a big payoff: more jobs in Albion, said Huya, the Albion Borough councilman."My time was good," said Huya, who is retired. "The '60s and '70s were really good. Things are bad today. Whatever comes to our area, we better grab it."ED PALATTELLA can be reached at 870-1813 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNpalattella.KEVIN FLOWERS can be reached at 870-1693 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNflowers.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) Visit the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) at .GoErie.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage