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<br />capacity of 40 - 50 million gallons per year), with the potential to have air emissions and <br />noise greatly in excess of normal ethanol refineries; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, air quality in Hampton Roads is already tenuous. The region was <br />until very recently a "non-attainment area" by applicable federal standards. It is now <br />only barely within those standards, and air emissions from the proposed ethanol refinery <br />would degrade air quality, possibly making the region a non-attainment area again, and <br />thus creating a potential for significantly reduced economic development opportunities <br />for the entire region; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the proposed ethanol refinery proposes to use a combination of <br />"advanced technology" that would eliminate virtually all odor and carcinogens, thus <br />supposedly making the proposed refinery non-objectionable to any residents; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, some elements ofthis "advanced technology" are already in use in <br />other ethanol refineries and have not eliminated the problems in question, other elements <br />have never been used before and thus have no established record of performance or <br />supporting data, the company designing the refinery has in the past designed several <br />refineries that have caused and that continue to cause significant and objectionable air <br />emission problems, and the ethanol industry is in such an early stage of evolution that <br />ethanol refineries often have significant operational problems such as fires, explosions, <br />and failure of air emission controls; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, because of said reasons it must be fairly concluded that the claimed <br />"advanced technology" of the proposed ethanol refinery is nothing more than a highly <br />touted but totally untried technological combination that has not been documented or <br />proved in any legitimate scientific, objective, and empirical way to eliminate or <br />adequately control the various air emissions that put community quality and public health <br />at risk; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the developer and owner of the proposed refinery has no prior <br />experience whatsoever with the construction or operation of ethanol refineries; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, in addition to the aforementioned matters, there are also significant <br />road traffic, rail traffic, emergency response, water, wastewater, and storm water issues <br />associated with the proposed refinery that have not yet been satisfactorily addressed; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, for all of the above reasons, development of the proposed refinery <br />can reasonably be anticipated to negatively affect property values in numerous <br />Portsmouth and Chesapeake neighborhoods; and <br /> <br />WHEREAS, the City of Portsmouth has resisted reacting in a premature and <br />emotional way to the proposal and has instead engaged in thorough due diligence through <br />review of a great amount of scientific, technical, and historical, data and information, <br />retaining widely respected consultants in the fields of odor and air quality associated with <br />ethanol refineries, participating in extensive exchanges of information with Chesapeake <br />