Citizens express concerns over proposed bio-digester facility
Published 6:00 am Thursday, February 27, 2025
Darya Rafizadeh, development manager for Vanguard Renewables, shares information and answers questions on how the company’s bio-digester facilities work during a meeting of the Franklin-Simpson Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday. (JACK DOBBS / Daily News)
Several dozen residents of rural areas of Simpson County wait for a meeting of the Franklin-Simpson Planning and Zoning Commission to begin on Tuesday. Citizens in attendance shared their concerns over a proposed bio-digester facility, which many believe would change rural life in the county should it be built. (JACK DOBBS / Daily News)
Tammie Carey, a resident of the Prices Mill area of Simpson County, shares concerns over a proposed bio-digester facility to the Franklin-Simpson Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday (JACK DOBBS / Daily News)
Franklin-Simpson Planning and Zoning Commissioner Chad Konow takes notes as concerns are expressed by Simpson County residents over a proposed bio-digester facility at Tuesday’s commission meeting. (JACK DOBBS / Daily News)
Scott Chaney, a resident of the Prices Mill area of Simpson County, shares concerns over a proposed bio-digester facility to the Franklin-Simpson Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday (JACK DOBBS / Daily News)(JACK DOBBS / Daily News)
FRANKLIN — “There’s a lot of worries on people’s minds.”
This is how Simpson County resident Robert Scott described the feelings of county residents Tuesday after dozens gathered at a meeting of the Franklin-Simpson Planning and Zoning Commission to voice their concerns over a bio-digester facility rumored to be on its way to an otherwise rural area of the county.
A bio-digester is a facility that uses bacteria to break down organic waste in the absence of oxygen through a process known as anaerobic digestion.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, these facilities produce compounds that can be used for renewable energy, including digestate material which can be used for fertilizer and methane, which can be utilized as renewable natural gas. However, methane is widely known for its strong odor.
Concerns over the facility stem from its possible location. It has been rumored that Vanguard Renewables — the company behind the proposed facility in Simpson County — has looked at building the site in areas of the county traditionally devoted to agriculture, namely one location in the Prices Mill area in the southwestern portion of the county.
Currently, bio-digesters are not included in Simpson County zoning classifications.
A group called Citizens Protecting Rural Simpson County was in attendance at the planning and zoning meeting, sharing concerns over what this facility would mean for rural life.
“After spending just about ten minutes searching on Google … I quickly decided this was not a facility I want near my family, or anywhere in Simpson County,” Prices Mill resident Tammie Carey said during the meeting.
Carey said after her research, she became concerned over possible air pollution caused by the facility, along with possible health issues stemming from exposure to gases created by the digester and possible contamination of soil and water sources.
Nothing has been filed with planning and zoning and no action was taken by the commission Tuesday night on the matter.
Speaking to the commission, Carey said the group is “asking you to be proactive” by passing an amendment to county zoning rules that would prohibit outside waste from being processed and stored in Simpson County. Carey also presented a petition to the commission, signed by 552 county residents.
“Many times, we only have the opportunity to react to a proposal or request,” she said. “But today, we have the opportunity to make a difference and determine what we want our community to be.”
Snaking through the Prices Mill area is the two-lane Highway 383, called Springfield Road in Simpson County. While the road is frequently used during harvest time to deliver grain by truck to grain elevators, residents are concerned that the bio-digester would lead to an increase in heavy truck traffic volume.
Another Prices Mill resident, Scott Chaney, told the commission that much of the waste the digester would need would have to be trucked in.
“There could be up to 200 trucks per week (coming) in and out of the digester,” he said. “The impact this additional truck traffic would have on our community would be dangerous and damaging for our rural community.”
Other concerns raised include lowered property values as a result of the digester and impacts to quality of life, which Chaney said would put residents of Prices Mill “in an industrial setting.”
A team of representatives from Vanguard were present at the meeting to answer questions from residents. Kim Martin, vice president of development for Vanguard, told the Daily News the company is still in the preliminary stages with the idea.
“We appreciate the public’s concerns and we do want to address them,” she said. “We are in very early stages of due diligence, we have not selected a property … we are still just looking at the area.”
Darya Rafizadeh, development manager for the company, spoke during the meeting on how the digestion process works. After the meeting, he spoke one-on-one with residents answering their questions.
When asked after the meeting if a digester could be located away from agricultural areas, Rafizadeh told the Daily News that Vanguard is still doing its “due diligence” on the matter and stated “I don’t have all those answers yet.”
Vanguard’s bio-digesters usually employ nine to 12 full-time employees, he said. During the construction process, that number can get as high as 150. He said Vanguard usually leases land.
Rafizadeh said one benefit Vanguard provides to farmers is access to organic, lower cost fertilizer created by the digestion process. However, he did not state how much fertilizer from the digester would cost per acre, saying it depends on different factors such as how it would be spread over a field and soil types.
Rafizadeh said “it was good to hear everyone’s concerns” during the meeting.
“It’s good to hear their concerns and see what they have to say, because you learn something new every time you do one of these,” he said.
Jack covers city government for the Daily News. Originally from Simpson County, he attended Western Kentucky University and graduated in 2022 with a degree in journalism.
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