Major metal recycling may come to the county

April 23, 2009

A scrap metal recycling outfit is seeking the support of Valencia County to open a processing plant in the Rio Grande Industrial Park south of Rio Communities.

Calling itself Roadrunner Metals Recycling, with headquarters in Colorado, the company is planning to build their plant on a 15-acre site that’s zoned heavy industrial, or Industrial-3 (I-3).

The site will include a facility for cutting and crushing scrap metal that’s first hauled to the site by semi-trucks, then stacked on the property, and finally leaves by rail.

“We don’t want to be the South Broadway of Valencia County,” County Commissioner Ron Gentry told a group of Rio Communities residents on Tuesday night, echoing a comment made by a constituent. He added, “It’s junk in, junk out.”

Gentry, who said he speaks on the matter as a citizen and not as a commissioner, owns a ranch adjacent to the proposed site. He was one of only two county residents provided notice of the proposal. The other local contacted by certified mail was the Rio Grande Industrial Park itself.

On Wednesday, the Valencia County Planning and Zoning Board of Commissioners took up the project during a fact-finding public hearing. At the hearing, American Iron and Metal Co., Inc., which will own and operate the plant, presented its site design for comments.

“We are proposing a full-service metal recycling plant here that will handle automobiles, appliances, loose tin, sheet iron, high-beams, barn scrap,” said Jim Warren, the company’s president. “We are going to handle everything that’s in everyone’s backyard in this county or counties around.”

He said the site will be a slightly larger operation than one it has in Colorado Spring, Colorado, on which their basing their proposal. They have another facility in Pueblo, Colorado.

“We believe the material is in the area,” he said of the scrap metal. “We believe the county could use a little cleaning up around here and north in the South Valley of Albuquerque.”

The proposed site is located immediately north of the former Solo Cup factory, making use of the rail spur at the industrial park. It’s just over one mile from the Tierra del Sol Country Club and Golf Course in Rio Communities. There will be two entrances to the facility along Highway 304, one of which will have two scales to weigh incoming scrap metal.

The company will have staging areas for the raw metal and one staging area for the finished ground metal product. Warren said the height of the raw material and finished product should not exceed 35 feet and will more likely reach only 25 feet.

The plans call for a “grinding house” with four-inch steel walls, cranes with magnets and three conveyors. One of the conveyors will be the highest point on the property at 40 feet. Prior to being corrected, Warren said the highest point would be 60 feet.

Approximately 25 semi-trucks will deliver the raw material to the plant. The route has not been determined, but Warren suggested the route would be Highway 47 from Albuquerque, with an audience member shouting, “It’s bad enough as it is.” The only alternative route suggested is Reinken Avenue and River Road in Belen. The finished product will be shipped out by rail.

The company will take measures to avoid blight, planting two rows of staggered conifers on the property’s frontage along Highway 304 and constructing an eight-foot-high fence. Warren said the noise level would be lower than an adjacent cement factory.

“If our plant was sitting outside this building and it was running,” he said, referring to the county administrative offices, “you would not hear it.”

Warren expects the company will provide up to 50 on-site jobs when at full capacity and will buy material from local suppliers and residents. The company expects up to $12 million in tax revenue for Valencia County.

The company provided very basic information about the environmental impact, saying fluids in the raw material must be drained before they reach the facility. Any residual fluid will be washed out during the processing, which is contained in a closed water tank. The water is then cleaned by a company like Mesa Oil, which is located at the industrial park.

Water use would be 650,000 gallons a year, the equivalent of two to three large households’ usage, according to Planning and Zoning Commissioner Jim Lane.

Lane expressed concern that there would be no on-site removal of fluids from vehicles and other items brought by citizens.

“If they’re looking to get this aluminum scrap price for this air conditioner and they’re being turned around because it has oil in it,” Lane said, “what do you think they’re going to do?”

Lane suggested they might try to remove the fluid themselves and then return to the facility to sell the drained air conditioner.

Gentry, who was warned that his testimony during the public hearing might cause problems if any planning and zoning commission decisions on the matter are appealed to the county commission, argued that the company and county are pursuing the wrong application process. He said the county’s zoning for the industrial park doesn’t permit this type of facility among its list of allowable uses. He said the county should be considering this matter as a conditional use, instead of a conforming I-3 use.

Others were unsure if the plant is the right fit for the Rio Grande Industrial Park, explaining that the plant could have a negative impact on the companies already at the industrial park or new high-wage companies seeking to locate or build there.

“Close to the highway, it’ll be an eyesore, too noisy and polluting,” said Rio Communities resident Joe Rizzo. “It would also produce too few low-paying jobs in a place where we need to support many nearby residences with clean, high paying, high technology jobs. They will be squeezed out.”

Warren countered some of the claims made by Gentry and others, arguing that his company’s facility will not look like what already exists in Albuquerque.

“We buy, process and sell,” Warren said. “We stage. We don’t store.”

He said his company is exploring on-site draining of fluids and has worked closely with Colorado governments and law enforcement to ensure smooth operation of its facilities.

“It’s a different world. It’s a green world today,” Warren said, “We have to follow that green path. I believe it’s a fun path. Myself, personally, and my family, we have sold out to the recycling industry. It is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

American Iron and Metal must return to the planning and zoning commission with specifics before the plant is permitted for construction.

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