Montauk officials aim to assuage residents; facility plan still in works

TURKEY — Officials with Montauk Ag Renewables, LLC, the animal agriculture waste processing facility that is planning to develop a site in the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction to convert waste into renewable energy, returned to town for a recent meeting to listen to continued concerns from town residents regarding the potential of odors, traffic and pollution. Company officials assured residents they would continue to follow all rules and regulations, and take into account all concerns, but stressed — as they did at the end of 2021 — that the facility was still very much a work in progress before it gets close to being operational.

Montauk Ag Renewables, LLC, a subsidiary of publicly-traded Montauk Renewables, Inc., will reportedly locate off Highway 24 in the former Bay Valley Foods Distribution Center in Turkey, with a facility named Turkey Creek Ag, LLC. The Sampson County Economic Development Commission made a formal announcement in December 2021.

Upon the announcement, Montauk officials said they anticipated a five-year process for the Turkey Creek facility to become fully operational, with expectations to hire 70 new team members over that time period.

Joe Carroll and Martin Redeker, president and vice president of Montauk Ag Renewables, LLC, respectively, held an informative session the next day for the public. They gave an overview of the company, answering questions as part of an informative session. At the recent Turkey town meeting, they took a more passive role, listening rather than making a comprehensive presentation. About half a dozen town residents shared their thoughts.

“We’ve always had a town that worked together and gotten along good,” said Donald Myers, former Turkey mayor. “And I’d like to see us continue to do that. We passed an ordinance some years ago that kept hog houses out, and we passed it for one purpose only and that was the smell. We have hog houses around us and we smell them maybe two or three times a month. It’s not severe. I hope this company will be the same way.”

Some Turkey residents said that, while they were in favor of tax base and jobs, they didn’t want it to come with potential odors, traffic, spills and a diminished quality of life. Many echoed similar concerns as well as those previously voiced in the town hall.

At last Tuesday’s meeting, Turkey Mayor Max Pope said that he received a memorandum stating that “right now (Montauk) is in full compliance with state and local procedures, and they’re approved to move ahead.”

Pope said he was disheartened and “quite surprised” by what he called “inappropriate” displays from residents in opposition of Montauk.

“They’re meeting all the state’s standards and have been meeting them since the beginning,” Pope remarked. “They went out of their way to come and speak to us, and then I was sent a list of questions to (send to Montauk), and I was embarrassed to put this in the mail.”

Carroll said it has been made clear to company officials that town residents wanted the company to follow all protocols.

“In our last meeting, what we heard loud and clear, was that the thing the town wanted the most was for us to follow the rules, whatever they were — that we did all the proper permits, that we went through all the proper steps, and we did that,” said Carroll. “We will continue to do that as we actually implement the engineering plans and the buildout. As a publicly-traded company, we are obligated to do a lot of reporting to a lot of different agencies. We’re here to listen and, if we hear concerns, then we certainly take that under advisement and work it into our plans.

“We’ll continue to work through the channels that you all have laid out for us,” Carroll stated, “which is to work through the Council of Government. Any way we can help to make that better for the community, we are certainly going to do that.”

Montauk expects to use the Turkey Creek facility to enable them to seek to enact a plan of conversion of animal agriculture waste to renewable natural gas, and, with a goal of reformulating renewable energy residuals into other a potential organic, pathogen-free, soil supplements and chemical fertilizer alternative renewable energy products. They are specifically focused on the conversion of swine waste and other biomass associated with the swine growing process.

Redeker said the Turkey facility is still in the planning stages. There is no blueprint.

“We told you a long time ago, that we didn’t have a plan,” Redeker told town members. “We have a desire to put a plan together. We’ve been working on it already for quite a while, since before our first meeting with you guys. We’ve been meeting with engineers. I meet with them multiple times a week. We’re always working on this process, but we’re doing it with the idea of being a good steward to the community.

“Right now, it’s tough to prove ourselves, because we haven’t started yet, we don’t have something etched in paper to show you guys,” Redeker continued, “but as we move forward, we’re going to make sure that we address all the building issues, all the requirements, everything that needs to be done in order to be a good steward and a good neighbor to you guys. We’re still going through the regulations and getting everything approved. We’re not growing hogs over there and we’re not storing materials over there. As we collect it, we process it and it goes through the system.”

Redeker has said the ag waste issue is one that has only compounded over the years, and businesses like Montauk were needed to alleviate what is a pressing issue that won’t get any better.

“We are very excited to be working to open a facility in Sampson County and believe it’s a great place for our business to take the next step in our development,” Carroll stated previously. “We look forward to working with the county, and the great people living there, to offer quality, stable jobs, while working to positively impact the environment.”

The company’s anticipated products and service offerings include swine waste removal, lagoon maintenance, and spray field cover crop management. There are no smokestacks and no emissions, company officials said. He noted the bio-gas, bio-oil and bio-char that is produced as part of the process.

The goal, company officials said, is to operate in a centrally located facility that has quick access to surrounding farms, where solid waste is taken from the hog houses and transported to be processed. That waste would be processed within seven days, because after 7-10 days is when that material tends to degrade, at which point valuable nutrients are lost and an odor might become an issue.

“There is more opportunity for us here in Duplin and Sampson County than there are most other places in the United States,” said Carroll. “There’s more hog farms here than just about anywhere else.”

Carroll and Redeker have both stressed that they were not farmers by trade. Redeker said he spent years attempting to learn what it meant to be a hog farmer and the regulatory strain those farmers were under, especially as it pertained to waste management.

“We’ve been trying to use the innovative process we have in order to keep new waste from making it into lagoons,” said Redeker. “Additionally, we have ways to take that old waste out of those lagoons and start cleaning those things up.”

Last year, Montauk Renewables, Inc acquired Greenboro-based renewable energy company NR3, LLC, seeking to exclusively deploy the specialized, near-zero-emissions technology of NR3, which converts animal and agriculture waste into forms of environmentally friendly, 100% organic, renewable energy alternatives that can replace the three-primary fossil-fuels of the global energy infrastructure: oil, gas and coal.

Montauk retained the founders of NR3, Carroll and Redeker, who are long-time members of the agricultural community in North Carolina, with the focus placed on the enormous U.S. swine industry.

Town board member Rudy Blackburn closed the meeting, asking residents to be patient and open-minded, saying he felt transparency would be key and that the town had that with Montauk.

“They are in the beginning of a process,” Blackburn attested to town residents. “So there’s not so much information they can give out, especially with they’re in the engineering (phase) where they are designing and creating. I hope in the future as you progress to making this venture happen, that you visit, get with the citizens of Turkey and update them — ‘this is what we’re doing, this is what our process is going to be.’ That way the residents can stay a little bit more informed and maybe that will get rid of some of these questions and all those scary thoughts, and we can see maybe some of those scary thoughts aren’t as scary.”

Redeker said that’s what Montauk officials wanted to see as well.

“I know you’re starting a venture,: said Blackburn. “I personally think it’s going to be good for the community. I don’t want to look at the bad stuff all the time. We need to look at what good can come out of this.”