Koochiching Development Authority responds to invitation to apply for $15 million grant

The Koochiching Development Authority has been invited by a federal agency to apply for $15 million to construct the Renewable Energy Clean Air Project.

The KDA board took action in a special session Tuesday to apply for the grant from the federal Department of Energy. The meeting was called to handle several issues involving RECAP.

The invitation to apply for the $15 million grant resulted from a presentation on RECAP given to the DOE by staff of Coronal Plasma Gasification Solution, which is a partner with the KDA in development of the facility.

RECAP proposes to vaporize garbage and other waste with a plasma arc that would create electricity and other byproducts, as well as relieve the county’s need to pay to have its garbage hauled to a landfill in another county.

A feasibility study on the proposal is expected to be complete by mid-September or October. The board Tuesday approved a contract between the KDA and the Minnesota Pollution Control Board that would allow it to access $393,000 from the state for the study. The action is contingent on approval of the contract by the KDA’s legal advisors.

In addition, the board authorized Paul Nevanen, director of the Koochiching Economic Development Authority, to provide information to R.W. Beck, an engineering firm reviewing the feasibility study.

The board also agreed to send a letter to Westinghouse Plasma Corp. seeking permission to provide the corporation’s data to R.W. Beck for review.

In other business, the board agreed to allow $25,000 pledged to the Backus Community Center to be used for the third-floor renovation and elevator project, as requested by Ward Merrill, executive director of Backus.

The board had earlier pledged the money for a kitchen development project.