When Azteca Milling LP, a subsidiary of Gruma Corp., began thinking about a facility expansion for its corn milling operation in Evansville, Ind., one of the first things it did was contact the municipal water authorities in the region to make sure that there would be an adequate water supply.
The Azteca plant, which opened in 1996, is located just north of downtown Evansville on the Ohio River and employs 170 workers. The plant currently processes 420 tons of corn a day.
“We consume 180,000 gallons of water a day with our two process lines,” said Gerardo Oseguera, director of project engineering for Gruma.
Plans call for the addition of two process lines, with the last line’s completion slated for mid-2006. With the expansion, water consumption will go up by 50 percent, Oseguera said.
“By the time the lines are installed, we’ll have the largest corn milling operation in the world, and we’ll be able to process close to a 1,000 tons of corn a day,” he said.
Two water issues that are equally important, Oseguera said, are having an adequate supply for all processes and having the ability to effectively dispose of wastewater.
Get water commitments in writing, is one piece of advice from Frank Spano, associate director of planning for The Austin Co.’s Facilities Location Group in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.
“We look for a written commitment from the municipal water works stating that based on this level of consumption, our client would be paying X dollars per month,” Spano said. “Also, we need to make sure that everything is spelled out, including one-time costs, impact and connection fees, and line and meter sizes.”
Impact fees can be substantial, especially in fast-growing areas where the water system can’t compete with demand, Spano said.
The Austin Co. has had some success in mitigating some of these water system expenses for its clients.
The company did some work for a manufacturing operation in South Carolina that was facing an impact fee of more than $50,000. It was able to have the fee waived through the incentive negotiation process, Spano said.
He added that getting a written commitment follows many preliminary steps, like getting water usage data at the community level, completing an investigation in the field and obtaining a detailed water quality report. The latter should include an analysis of metals, organics, contaminants and other chemicals in the water, as well as an analysis of its pH level.
Onion Processor Depends on Water
An adequate, high-quality water supply was important to Empire Fresh-Cuts when it recently opened a 27,000 square foot plant in Oswego, N.Y. The plant, which employs 25 workers, relies on advanced production equipment to peel onions.
The $3.6 million project received financial assistance from a Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 loan through Operation Oswego County.
“Later this year, we hope to ship about 400,000 pounds of whole peeled onions on a weekly basis, and we hope to be dicing onions shortly thereafter,” said Jeff Wallace, general manager of Empire Fresh-Cuts. “Water is very critical to our operation, and it plays a crucial role in our sanitation process and cleaning our equipment as well. Our onions are sanitized prior to packaging, and they travel through a large dip tank filled with water and chlorine. Water is a key to the total process.”
Because the company is strategically located near Lake Ontario, water is plentiful and accessible, he noted.
Manufacturers are significant consumers of water, according to the latest U.S. Geological Survey water use report. Industrial customers accounted for about 5 percent of total water usage, the report said. Louisiana, Indiana and Texas accounted for almost 38 percent of total industrial water withdrawals.
Even as water shortages and drought-like conditions are frequently reported in the news, local governments are investing in major water infrastructure projects to boost capacity, including pipelines, desalination plants and expanded reservoirs.
Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the American Water Works Association, said those investments will continue.
“Water utilities are making plans to insure an adequate supply because of two major reasons,” Hoffbuhr said. “One is because economic development depends on it and secondly, in rapidly growing parts of the U.S., investments are being made just to insure that the communities have the needed water supplies to accommodate the growth that is being projected.”
Hoffbuhr said businesses need to scope out water resources at prospective sites.
“If a business is a heavy water user, like a brewery for example, or if it’s a manufacturer of computer chips, I’d have a serious talk with the local water utility whether I’m in a water shortage area, just to see what their long-range water plans are,” he said. “Clearly, in a high-growth areas like the Southwest and Southeast, I would have a discussion with the water utility just to make sure their 50-year water plan has an adequate expansion in it for the possibility of industry.”
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