The Waelz Sustainable Products (WSP) facility is being affected by supply chain issues, like most businesses, and isn’t opening at the start of January as planned.
The zinc reclamation plant is 45 to 60 days behind schedule, WSP General Manager Mike Englert told the Cass County Redevelopment Commission on Monday.
However, the company is paying the 65 employees it’s already hired full wages in the meantime.
The plant’s kiln is now set to start operating the week of Feb. 28, Englert said.
The original schedule Englert gave the Cass County Commissioners on Aug. 16 had the January start date. The company began hiring for the plant, located at 3440 W. County Road 300 South, in October as planned, he said.
But now the raw material — electric arc furnace dust — will be coming by rail and truck during the week of Jan. 17 instead of in November as the original schedule stated.
Then, pelletizing the material so it handles better in the system will begin the week of Feb. 14.
The kiln, which puts the furnace dust under high heat to extract zinc and iron from it, was originally planned to be fired up in early December, with full production happening with the start of 2022.
The kiln is now set to start up the week of Feb. 28, said Englert.
WSP plans to have 74 people as full employment, and the last employee group is scheduled to start on Jan. 10. The estimated cost of the annual payroll and benefits will be $6,300,000.
Right now, employees are going through training on such things as regulations, safety and the plant’s process, he said. The kiln operators are already watching the controls. They’re also doing things like putting together furniture to get the site ready.
“The team has done better than I expected,” said Englert.
The supply chain issues are a matter of logistics, he added.
Electric arc furnace dust is a byproduct of steel mills recycling cars and appliances for the metal and is classified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as a hazardous substance.
Englert told the redevelopment commission members that there’s plenty of that product, but shipping logistics are the problem.
There’s “a lot more follow-up than I think you would’ve had before the pandemic,” he said.
Englert had appeared before the redevelopment commission to present the data from an air monitoring station WSP has installed on top of a county building at 505 High St.
A representative from WSP is required to present the data to the redevelopment commission every three months, and WSP installed the air monitor in February to get a base reading over multiple months.
The 90-day average for lead was 0.00203 to 0.00257 micrograms (one-millionth of a gram) per cubic meter of air.
The last 90-day average was 0.00241 micrograms per cubic meter.
WSP will also be sharing data with the City of Logansport for the next quarter, Englert said.
The city has put a testing device at the wastewater treatment plant southwest of town and closer to the plant, which is in the Agri-Business Park near Clymers.
Also at the redevelopment commission meeting, the three members present voted to table an item on the agenda called “Project Fusion.”
Redevelopment Commission President Ryan Zeck declined to talk about Project Fusion because it’s still early in the process.
A business has come to the county with an idea to see what’s available.
“We’re on step one of 237,” he said.
Zeck, Ruth Baker and Dave Arnold were the members in attendance.
