New Refinery

Union County voters approved rezoning for an oil refinery. There's still a long way to go......

The company must still clear a number of hurdles, including obtaining 28 different state and federal environmental permits. The first big step is a 613-page air quality permit application under review by the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. DENR officials have been reviewing the application since December, and Hyperion hopes to complete the air permit process by year's end.

If all goes well, Hyperion hopes to complete the permitting process by the end of 2009. If that happens, site preparation could begin in 2010.

Ed Cable, co-chairman of Save Union County, has vowed his group will do all it can in the courts and will challenge every state and federal permit the company must get in order to proceed to construction and operation of the refinery; it needs more than a dozen environmental permits alone.

What has particularly interested me is the fact that it would be the first new US refinery in 32 years. Technology has come a long way since; just look around your house at all the stuff that has improved considerably since then, if it existed at all.