The momentum is real, but the fight is not over, we need your help.

Nassau County Sierra Group is opposing RYAM’s proposal to build an ethanol plant on the Rayonier property in the City.

RYAM’s proposal is to produce 7.5 million gallons of high quality ethanol per year. This is to create a bio-fuel that will be used to make the European airline industry sustainable. A good idea for the future, however when production is being sited within the densely populated community of Fernandina Beach it is not a good idea for ‘our future’.  

A few of Nassau Sierra’s concerns are:

• The ethanol process is very dangerous when placed on the edge of a densely populated (within a quarter of a mile) of residential neighborhoods and a 1/2 mile from our historic downtown
• The City’s Comprehensive Plan prohibits additional chemical manufacturing and refining.
• Ethanol plants have a history of fires and explosions. There have been more than five in the last 2 years across America.
• Currently, the City does not have equipment with adequate amounts of fire protection foams that are ready to respond to any large-scale emergencies that could happen at an ethanol storage/manufacturing facility.
• If there is ever a need to evacuate in an emergency from an explosion or chemical release, adequate evacuation presents unique challenges due to limited routes on and off the island.
• RYAM’s sister plant in France has not met its projected Ethanol production. They are currently suspending their manufacturing operation to invest in genetically modified (GMO) yeasts. They found it difficult to ferment the sugars from the cellulose and get the ethanol production that was needed. Will GMO yeast be used here?
• GMO fermentation methods raise concerns if microbes accidently escape and disperse through the air. They potentially impact ecosystems and human health. Novel proteins produced by GM microbes could trigger allergic reactions in humans. Comprehensive risk assessments are needed to evaluate potential environmental and health impacts of using GM microbes.
• Antibiotics are also often used in the fermentation process. If thousands of gallons of effluent are released into the Amelia River, it bodes poorly for our aquatic residents including fish, dolphins, manatees, crabs, sea turtles, sharks, otters, oysters and other animals that share our environment.
• With the current designs for controlling emissions, they could be problematic over time. FDEP has told Nassau Sierra that it will only require ‘one' air quality report from the processing plant when it goes on-line, not one every year that it’s in production.
• More trucks on an already failing road like 200 and 8th Street do no one in this community any good.
• The ethanol plant will generate more noise. What site buffers will minimize this problem for residential areas?
• RYAM is a large corporation and it’s out of country owners (Bourregard and LignoTech) shouldn't have more of a say about what happens in our community than residents do.

Help us be pro-active and not sell out to a production process that will potentially affect our health, our property values, and our aquatic environment! 

We have received great support from the residents of Fernandina, people on the island and in the community. We have stood up, mobilized, made phone calls and sent emails to the FL legislature when RYAM was trying to interject wording in state legislation that would allow them to build by overriding Fernandina’s Comprehensive Plan.