Stark Dev. Corp. Board favors proppant facility near Gladstone

• Meeting

Shannon Nelson, CARBO Ceramics North American distribution manager, shows Stark Development Corp. Board members an outline for a $26 million proppant distribution facility Tuesday at the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce. The plant would be built less than one mile northeast of Gladstone and is expected to be completed in 2013.

Talk about it

A Houston corporation is interested in building a $26 million proppant distribution facility near Gladstone, but there is confusion as to which government bodies it must go through for permission, area leaders said Tuesday during a Stark Development Corp. Board meeting at the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce.

“This will be the largest distribution facility we currently have in our portfolio,” said Shannon Nelson, CARBO Ceramics North American distributing manager.

Stark Development Corp. Board members voted unanimously to support the proposal.

Proppant is a ceramic agent used to hold holes open during hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” which is a technique used to extract oil.

The facility would be built on 85 acres less than a mile northeast of Gladstone. The plant would hold approximately 100 million pounds of proppant when completed in the first quarter of 2013, Nelson said.

CARBO has partnered with Burlington Northern Santa Fe to access and build railroad tracks along the site, he added.

While 60 to 70 trucks would access the facility per day, Gladstone would have minimal impact from traffic because of its location, Nelson said.

Gladstone Mayor Kurt Martin said the city was not contacted about the project. He added he called CARBO.

“We had some concerns,” he said. “It’s got to be a workable situation.”

There was a misunderstanding about whether CARBO had to go through Stark County or the city of Gladstone, Nelson said.

“We were told that we would have to go to the county, not the city, because the property was outside that half-mile radius,” he said. “We later found out that actually that radius is a mile.”

Martin said he was willing to work with CARBO, and the company will contact the city to attend a meeting Nelson said.

The company is very reputable, said Gaylon Baker, Stark Development executive vice president. He added that CARBO wants to involve the community in the process.

“They simply want to make sure they are very transparent about what they are doing,” he said. “They want to make sure that this is a project that everyone supports.”

Tags: hydraulic fracturing, stark development corporation board, news, carbo, gladstone, proppant, fracking, oil