Many residents of the road were concerned that the facility will bring a large amount of trucks through the area loaded with smelly piles of chicken waste, and that the facility would be noisy.
While some may fear that the facility would use chicken parts, Marek assured the crowd that there would be no “burning or electrocuting live chickens,” and that only chicken litter would be used.
Anaerobic digesters can heat waste to create methane used to generate energy.
The electrical generation part of the facility does involve diesel generators.
Although the proposed facility would likely be placed on the six or seven acres near the middle of the property, residents worried that the business could expand, with anaerobic digesters and trucks full of litter waiting near the road.
“It would tell me where I can put things or not put things.” Johnny Hill Coble Jr., the owner of three properties located near the proposed facility site, asked Marek if he would build a house by the facility.
“It’s a giant metal thing.” Marek said that his disinclination to live by the facility would have nothing to do with truck traffic or smells, as he doesn’t believe it will be a problem.
Marek said the smell of chicken litter from the 900-plus poultry houses in the county, and the use of agricultural fertilizer, mean that the smell of chicken litter isn’t unusual in the county.
“I don’t believe it will destroy the value of the homes there.” But some still feared that while the smell of chicken litter and agricultural litter can be detected in certain parts of the county — sometimes only when fertilizer is being spread — it will be pervasive on their road when loads of it are trucked by their houses.
With no corporate representatives and Baucom being the only commissioner present (county manager Megan Garner was also in attendance), Coble felt the meeting had been a promotional session for the facility.