Lime pile slows work at Leprino site

GREELEY — A giant pile of waste lime on the north end of the now-razed Great Western Sugar factory site in Greeley has slowed construction on a new plant to make mozzarella cheese. But Leprino Foods Inc. is working on a solution to incorporate much of the lime into the facility’s ground preparation and save millions that it might have cost to haul it away.

About 700,000 cubic yards of lime, piled 25 feet high on a 13-acre area during the 100 years that Great Western operated a sugar-beet processing plant near downtown Greeley, must be removed before Denver-based Leprino can build its wastewater treatment facility.

Leprino purchased the 93-acre site last year. The company plans to build a $143 million, 847,000-square-foot facility that will eventually employ up to 500 people.

Leprino has hired Fiore and Sons Inc., a Denver-based firm that specializes in environmental remediation and waste transportation services, to perform the lime cleanup. The company has been involved in many cleanup and site preparation projects in Northern Colorado, including redevelopment of the former Crossroads Mall site in Boulder.

Sugar beet waste

Lime was used in the extraction of sugar from the region’s beets during much of Great Western’s century of operation. Sugar-laden juice squeezed from the beets was pumped into machines where lime was added to the liquid. The lime changed the liquid’s pH and also helped remove impurities. The dissolved waste lime was later removed during processing and hauled to the north end of the site where it piled up over decades.

Mike Reidy, Leprino Foods’ senior vice president, said figuring out how best to deal with the lime pile has played a role in a slowdown in site preparation activity. “There are soil conditions that we need to do some more work on,” he said. “Some of the conditions with the site were not what we expected, and that’s had some effect on the delay.”

Becky Safarik, Greeley’s community development director, said the lime is not toxic and could be hauled to a landfill. But she estimated that would cost Leprino an estimated $8.5 million. The company is planning to locate its own wastewater treatment facility on the lime site just north of the Poudre River and adjacent to the city of Greeley’s water treatment plant on Eighth Street.

“It’s the nut to crack for them,” Safarik said. “They want to put their wastewater treatment facility there.”

Safarik said the piled-up lime is simply too soft to build upon. “It’s not hazardous, but there’s just too much of it in one place,” she said.

Reidy said the overall construction timeline is still in place, with the first phase of the plant expected to open in 2011.

Dairy uncertainty

He said another factor that’s slowed down the start of construction has been uncertainty over the continued viability of the milk shed, or dairy-producing community, in Northern Colorado in the wake of the New Frontier Bank failure in April. The Greeley-based bank was the biggest agricultural lender in the region and has left many dairy operations struggling to find credit for their operations.

“The simple fact is New Frontier Bank was associated with 30 percent of Northern Colorado’s milk production,” Reidy said. “There could be as much as a third of (the region’s) milk production at risk.”

Reidy acknowledged that financial conditions for area dairies will likely look far different two years from now when the plant opens. But he said he is concerned about the long-term impacts of the current downturn.

“I’m hopeful we can resolve these site conditions and get ourselves confident that the milk shed can survive the New Frontier Bank closure,” he said.

Reidy said later phases of construction will depend on future economic conditions and the health of the local dairy industry.

“That’s something, quite honestly, that we’re still trying to work through,” he said of the timeline for later phases.

‘Hopeful’ for construction start

Reidy said he remains “hopeful” that the first phase of construction on the site will begin within the next several weeks.

“I am hopeful that you’ll start to see some earth moving within the next few months,” he said. Reidy said cleanup on the far northeast section of the site will not hold up work on the facility, which will be built on the south side.

Reidy said Leprino is not concerned that construction is not yet buzzing. “We have to be responsible and complete the due diligence and do what needs to be done,” he said.

Safarik said Leprino has not yet applied for any construction permits, nor had a final site plan been filed as of July 13.

And while the project has been delayed, local dairy producers see Leprino’s investment in Northern Colorado as a light in the distance that will ultimately provide a huge market — more than 5 million pounds of milk daily — for those who can survive until then.

“I think just the fact they’re coming, whether it’s May or August of 2011, we’re just so glad they’re coming to build because they’re such a good company,´ said Les Hardesty, owner of Cozy Cow Dairy near Windsor.

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