The meeting was the first by the city since The Press Democrat revealed that startup Resynergi has fallen under investigation by local and state authorities over questions about whether it was authorized to do business at three local sites.<\/p>\n
Opponents of a controversial plastics recycling operation planned for Rohnert Park blasted the project during a City Council meeting Tuesday evening and called for city officials to \u201cpull the permit\u201d and hold public hearings to discuss safety concerns.<\/p>\n
About a dozen Rohnert Park residents criticized the project for nearly an hour during the public comment period, accusing the city of fast-tracking what they said is essentially a chemical manufacturing business pawned off as green recycling.<\/p>\n
Resynergi<\/a>, the company seeking to open the operation, has come under investigation by local and state government regulators <\/a>amid questions over whether it was authorized to conduct business at three local sites over the past several years. Two of those sites are at SOMO Village in Rohnert Park and the other is at a defunct site in southwest Santa Rosa.<\/p>\n The company insists its technology is safe. It uses microwave energy to break down certain types of plastic waste under oxygen-free conditions into gases that are condensed into pyrolysis oil.<\/p>\n But several local residents pointed out Tuesday that the business is classified under federal environmental standards as \u201cchemical manufacturing\u201d and \u201cother waste incineration.\u201d As such, they said, the project does not belong in a complex surrounded by residences and a school.<\/p>\n \u201cCouncil members we\u2019re here tonight because the Resynergi project was pushed into our community under the banner of recycling, but the truth is it\u2019s a petrochemical refinery advanced without honest review, without transparency and without the respect for the people that live here,\u201d said Erich Zuver, a local resident who recently bought a home on Walfdorf Lane, in SOMO Village and across the street from Credo High School.<\/p>\n Zuver pointed out that Resynergi\u2019s facility is designed to process 5 tons of waste plastic a day.<\/p>\n \u201cThe outputs are clear: about 69% becomes petroleum oil while the rest is waste,\u201d he said, adding that \u201ctoxic gas\u201d is burned off in a thermal oxidizer and the operation will produce 100 tons of char ash each year.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is incineration and incinerators are explicitly prohibited in SOMO Village,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s CEO Brian Bauer has stated that the microwave process that heats up and breaks down plastic waste is not incineration or combustion because it happens in an oxygen-free environment.<\/p>\n City officials granted the project an \u201cadministrative use permit\u201d because they determined that it was classified as \u201clight industrial,\u201d and thus legally permitted in SOMO Village. Administrative use permits do not require a planning commission hearing.<\/p>\n