Montauk comes to Turkey

TURKEY — Officials with Montauk Ag Renewables, LLC recently visited with Turkey officials and residents following an announcement that the company would be setting up shop in the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Company officials explained the process by which agricultural waste transformed into renewable energy, answering questions and addressing concerns, while offering the caveat that the local facility was still very much a work in progress.

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 on Dec. 20.

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.

The company’s anticipated products and service offerings include swine waste removal, lagoon maintenance, and spray field cover crop management.

Some Turkey residents expressed apprehension at the announcement — a similar sentiment has been received regarding animal waste processing near residential areas in Sampson in recent years due to concerns of potential odor and traffic — and questioned Montauk officials during the recent meeting as to operations and the company’s intentions.

Joe Carroll and Martin Redeker, president and vice president of Montauk Ag Renewables, LLC, were on hand to give an overview of the company and what it does, and answer questions as part of an informative session.

There are no smokestacks and no emissions, said Carroll, who noted the bio-gas, bio-oil and bio-char that is produced as part of the process.

“We have 100% beneficial reuse of all those byproducts,” Carroll stated. “This isn’t something that we just drew up on the back of a napkin. There’s a lot of engineering and iron and steel that goes into this.”

Carroll extended an invite to residents to tour an existing processing facility located a few miles from Magnolia, with some town officials already taking him up on the offer. The goal 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 is a bit of an art,” Carroll attested. “We process it within seven days, because after 7-10 days is when that material tends to degrade.”

As it degrades, valuable nutrients are lost and that is when odor might become an issue, he explained.

“Really the last two and a half years has been focused on how to efficiently collect that waste product — both the manure and the agricultural waste — and how to do it in a way that is going to improve the environment of the communities in which we’re working,” said Carroll. “We’re really trying to use that process to reduce odors and move the waste along in a way we don’t give it the opportunity where it’s starting to become invasive to the people around (us).”

Redeker noted that there has been no processing inside of a building to this point. Material is processed outside in the Magnolia-area plant, up to 12 tons a day. In Turkey, Montauk is hoping to process 20 times that amount once the facility is built up.

In addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, Montauk also brings with it “good-paying long-term jobs” in communities, he said.

“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.”

Some residents said that, while they were in favor of tax base and jobs, they didn’t want it to come with potential odors, traffic and at the expense of their quality of life. Redeker 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.

“I understand the concern, and I would have it too, but I think with Martin’s care and how he’s handling it, we don’t believe that it is going to significantly add to what the existing mix is in the air in and around Turkey,” said Carroll. “We will be monitoring that closely and will certainly put design elements in our plan to minimize that in any way we can.”

Carroll and Redeker 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.”

Rumors had been swirling in recent weeks leading up to a Dec. 20 announcement of Montauk coming to town. Company officials spoke with Turkey officials and residents during a regularly-scheduled town meeting the following night.

Montauk Renewables, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTK) is a renewable energy company specializing in the management, recovery and conversion of biogas into renewable natural gas. Montauk Ag Renewables, LLC is its subsidiary, “which plans to utilize its patented technology for the conversion of agricultural residuals into renewable energy, including swine waste and other biomass associated with the swine growing process,” the county announcement stated.

“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.”

It is the next step for a fledgling venture.

Earlier this 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.

According to the National Pork Producer’s Council, in the U.S., more than 60,000 pork producers annually market more than 115 million hogs, which, on average, provide total gross income of more than $20 billion USD and supports over 550,000 jobs. The world’s pig farmers produced 108.2 million metric tons of pork last year, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, with China, the European Union, the United States as the top producers.

It will take some time for the Turkey facility to actually be up and running.

County officials said that the company anticipates 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. The positions are likely to include multiple managerial roles, administrative positions, mechanics and technicians, equipment operators, farm hands, truck drivers and lab technicians.

Redeker conceded that in the process of trying to find a location that would be suitable for Montauk and a future facility that the operation “could grow into,” they neglected to seek out town officials and open the lines of communication. Mayor Max Pope, at the behest of town officials, extended an invitation to Carroll and Redeker to come to this month’s meeting.

“We were able to get the building bought; We don’t have a plan, we haven’t been through engineering … we’re in the process right now of trying to decide how to best utilize that building going forward,” said Redeker, who showed carbon, oil and compost able to be manufactured from hog waste and switchgrass. “All the stuff we make is stable. It is not flammable. It’s stable, it’s safe and we can store it.”

Redeker noted that Montauk officials have already talked with local fire officials.

“When the hog manure is dry, it has hardly any odor,” said Redeker, noting the drying process was key. “We have to collect that new manure off the farm every 7 to 10 days. We don’t want to stockpile that manure. We want to dry it as quick as we can and get it through our process. The longer it takes us to dry that material, the more energy we allow to fall out of that material. We are in the business of trying to take advantage of all the energy we possibly can. We don’t really want to store it ro stockpile it. We collect it, process it and use it right away.”

Redeker noted that Montauk has worked locally with integrators such as Smithfield Foods, Villari Foods and Murphy Family Ventures.

Sampson County Board of Commissioners Chairman Clark Wooten expressed his gratitude at the announcement of Montauk coming to the county.

“Montauk Ag Renewables will complement the strong concentration of agriculture and manufacturing companies in Sampson County and across the region,” Wooten stated. “The county is grateful that Montauk Ag Renewables chose Sampson County as one of their renewable energy facilities across the country.”

Redeker said that, as plans are drawn up, company officials will ensure that all rules and regulations, and town and county ordinances are followed. Commissioner Tony Moore pressed the matter, noting that he was very much pro-business and pro-agriculture, but wanted to ensure full transparency for town residents regarding the company’s operations and when that might begin.

Redeker said he planned for Montauk to update the town periodically as things progress. Right now, it was merely introductional in nature, because the exact blueprint for Turkey simply isn’t there as of yet.

“There is no plan to start over there yet,” Redeker remarked. “We won’t start construction over there for a number of months.”

Discussions would take place to ensure proper applications were made and any zoning matters addresses prior to the operations commencing.

“We would do everything we would need to do to be in compliance with that guidance,” said Carroll.