STERN TO RESIDENTS: ‘WE HEAR YOU’

Local investor apologizes, says DPS officials are working toward solutions

It wasn’t only a platform for the public to provide input, or a chance for county officials to review the conditional use permit and learn about non-compliance violations by Dakota Protein Solutions.

The Aug. 19 meeting of the Turner County Board of Adjustment was also an opportunity for one of the key investors of the problematic rendering plant located southeast of Freeman to address the concerns and speak directly to the residents of the Freeman community.

And that’s what Scott Stern did.

“We hear you,” he said, appearing in front of the board of adjustment but turning around to speak directly to those crowded in the meeting room and the adjoining office and reception area just outside. “Residents of Freeman, I’m sorry.

“We have stumbled,” Stern said. “And it breaks my heart.”

Stern told the board that, even though he no longer lives there, he considers Freeman home, and he went into this project with the best of intentions.

“I spent some time in public service, and in that capacity, it was important for me to help rural communities,” he said. “I shared repeatedly in public environments how important it was to create economic development and economic advancement in small communities.”

Stern described economic development in larger cities as “lobster traps,” meaning that growth in cities like Sioux Falls and Rapid City stays within. When economic growth happens in rural communities like Freeman, he said, it circulates there first before extending outward.

“Rarely, like a lobster trap, does it go the other way,” Stern told the baord. “That was what my heart was trying to create for this community.”

Cause of the odor

Stern told the board that not all rendering facilities are created equal.

“Compositionally, all rendering plants are made up of the same systems, but they’re all like snowflakes in that they’re all different,” he said. “Every rendering plant has cookers and presses and boilers and things of that nature, but depending on the quantity of the feed stock, the type of the feed stock, the feed rates, even climatic conditions, they’re different.”

“It’s a little bit like an orchestra,” he continued. “You have all of these instruments, but you can’t create beautiful music until they’re all in sync, and we are not all in sync.”

He cited two issues causing the stink: The holding pond south and slightly east of the facility that holds used water, and the water itself.

Stern said the system designed to remove animal fat before the water is pumped out was not running correctly when DPS began processing dead stock, and that resulted in an odor in the holding pond.

Making the issue problematic is that, because of the summer rains, there has been no need to irrigate with that excess water.

“If we’d have had a dry season, that holding pond would have been emptied … so that problem just sits there and continues to fester,” Stern said. “Once we can irrigate that and get it out of the system one time, we’ve got that dialed in. We’re not putting any more fat in that system.”

As for the water challenges, Stern admits that DPS missed the mark out of the gate.

“We made the assumption there was adequate water to serve that plant,” he told the board last week. “There wasn’t.”

As a result, DPS officials approached both TM Rural Water District and B-Y Water — which has supplied the city of Freeman for 30 years — about buying their product but were told neither had the infrastructure required to support the 20,000 gallons required daily to run the operation.

“I don’t think anybody, when they designed rural water, understood that there were going to be small communities that would be using it,” said Steve Schmeichel, chair of the Turner County Board of Adjustment. “It was not sized for that. That’s a challenge for all the rural water communities.”

In light of that obstacle, Stern told the board that DPS went to the city of Freeman and inquired about using its three decommissioned wells that were the source of city water prior to B-Y extending its line to Freeman in 1995, “and they were gracious and kind enough to put the wells into service and give access to that water.”

DPS and the city of Freeman entered into a three-year contract.

The problem, Stern continued, is the poor quality of that well water, which is what prompted the city to contract with B-Y in the first place.

“You know how important good water is,” he said. “The chemicals that we’re putting in the scrubber are being scavenged by the minerals in that water, so it makes the whole system almost non-functional.”

But DPS is working on a solution, he said — the identification of another water source that can provide about 16,000 gallons of good, clean water a day, which is enough to sustain the plant for the next several years. After that, Stern said, he is hopeful that B-Y Water will have extended its infrastructure in a way that can support DPS long-term.

Stern also noted that DPS is putting up a 50,000-gallon tank for a fresh water supply if necessary.

“Those are the two forces that are fixable,” he said of the holding pond and the water supply issues. “This is like a cancer, but it’s a curable cancer, and we’re committed to curing it. The solutions are there.”

Non-compliance

Stern was pressed by the commission on why DPS was not in compliance in the first place — why the issue was brought to the Aug. 19 meeting in the first place.

Stern said cited violation on the hauling agreement was a misunderstanding — that he thought that, because another governing agency was issuing that, it would be the ones to file an agreement.

“I did not realize that we were supposed to be the originator,” he said. “We’re happy to accommodate that.”

“That’s all appreciated, but it’s like closing the gate after the cows were out,” responded one of the board members. “Why wasn’t it done initially.”

“No excuses, but we had a manager that left us who (was supposed to) take care of those things,” Stern said. “We have an active management team that’s supposed to execute on those things and, when they don’t, we own it. No excuse, but that’s what happened.”

As for the dust control required twice yearly, Stern said the product has been on hand but works best under dry conditions.

“It hasn’t been imminent in our mind because it hasn’t been dry — we haven’t had a dust challenge,” he said. “It will get done. The requirement is twice a year, it will be twice a year.”

As for the livestock stored in trailers, he called it “a bit ambiguous.”

“We didn’t see that we were storing the animals in the trailer,” Stern said. “That was waiting to be unloaded — like it was in transit. I sure wish all hogs and cattle picked up died from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, but they don’t.”

Stern used an example of when the electricity goes out and takes out an entire hog barn, “when four, five, six trailers of material that ends up at our place overnight, that we don’t know about.

“Those are some of the things that we can have discussion on or work through about how to effectively handle those spikes when those things happen,” he said. “But we never saw that as storage — basically waiting to be unloaded or in transit.

“I would disagree that we are not in compliance there,” Stern concluded. “It’s driving efficiency for the haulers; they drop that trailer, they pick up a clean, sanitized trailer and go. I know people have posted pictures of trailers that don’t look good; those are being pulled by our shag truck that never left the property. We want to clear up some of that misinformation.”

Additional discussion

Stern addressed several other issues.

He spoke to the criticism that has resulted from doors at DPS that are sometimes open — criticism that has been documented and shared through photos on social media and with Freeman City Attorney Mike Fink. But Stern said the reason for the open doors is to pull more air into the plant than can then be pushed through the air scubber system.

He also asked that residents not take the problem out on the employees who work at DPS.

“Our employees are passionate about working at that plant, and if there’s any animosity that needs to be focused, give it to us. Our employees don’t deserve that. Freeman’s a welcoming community and it’s unfortunate what they’ve been exposed to.

“We’ll take that on.”

Tiffany Mehlhaf, who earlier in the meeting shared her concerns, asked during Stern’s dialogue with the board if those attending could ask questions of Stern, and pushed back when she was told no.

“We have problems that are happening here and I have questions for Scott that you guys might not come up with,” she said. “I understand the process, but we’ve asked to talk to Scott, and now Scott shows up and we can’t ask him questions.”

“Not right here during this meeting,” responded Daisy Johnson, Turner County’s director of equalization with planning and zoning who documented and shared with the board the three non-compliance issues being reviewed.

“Then we’re not going to get it,” Mehlhaff responded.

“Why is that?” Schmeichel asked.

“Because we’ve tried,” she said.

Later in the meeting, somebody asked where to address questions to Stern “instead of social posting it?”

“I appreciate that,” Stern responded. “Those people that have reached out in a rational capacity, I am more than willing to have conversations with.”