A majority of Conoy Township supervisors dissed ethanol Thursday night, then voted 3-2 to permit a $120 million ethanol distillery in the township.

The granting of a conditional-use permit — with 77 conditions — to Lancaster Biofuels after five months of hearings clears a major hurdle for the proposed 60-million-gallon-per-year plant.

It would be built on 65 acres of former farmland along the Susquehanna River and adjacent to the county incinerator.

Opponents, meanwhile, today said they are contemplating a court challenge to the decision.

"It really begs to be appealed because they (Lancaster Biofuels) gave such barebones information," said Judith Nissley, co-owner of Nissley Vineyards at Bainbridge.

If a multitude of water, air emissions and land-development permits are secured, ground could be broken next year on the plant and the controversial alternative-fuel gasoline additive could begin flowing by 2010 or 2011, Seth Obetz, Lancaster Biofuels president, said this morning.

It could be the second ethanol plant built in Pennsylvania. Ground was broken last month in Clearfield County on a $265 million corn- and wood-fermenting facility.

"It's a big step, but it's one step in the process," a restrained Obetz said. "We are happy to move forward but my bigger concern, and I think the country's, is it'll feel good when we no longer have to send our kids over to the Middle East to fight for oil."

Lancaster Biofuels has a $2.7 purchase agreement on the 65 acres owned by the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority. The authority would sell the ethanol plant steam.

About 100 residents were on the edge of their seats as the supervisors gave their vote and comments, one by one, in the Bainbridge Fire Hall.

John Shearer started off by noting, "I agree that ethanol is not the long-term answer to independence from foreign oil...unfortunately, that's not my purpose on this board."

Shearer said he felt Lancaster Biofuels had met the requirements of the application. He promised that the township would allow "absolutely no shortcuts" on the conditions imposed on the company.

Silence turned to cheers when the microphone was passed to Supervisor Gina Mariana and she voted against the application.

"I think it's (ethanol) a Band-Aid solution," she said, adding that  Lancaster Biofuels did not address environmental impacts sufficiently and that the plant "will change our neighborhood adversely."

Supervisor Clyde Pickel also voted against the permit, saying emissions from the plant could contribute to global warming. He said he was concerned that hot water discharged from the plant into the river each day could harm aquatic life.

Supervisor Robert Strickland, noting he was away from his wife on the couple's 55th wedding anniversary, said the supervisors were about to make a decision that would affect the township "for some time to come."

He voted to approve the application, saying he felt the plant would improve the township's economy, add jobs and widen the tax base. He said the 77 conditions "are there, each one of them, to protect the township."

Lancaster Biofuels would pay the township about $450,000 a year in payments in lieu of taxes.

That left the deciding vote with longtime Supervisor Stephen Mohr, who years ago sought to locate the county waste-to-energy incinerator in the township.

"This board is not deciding whether ethanol is good or bad, only if the application meets the requirements of this township," Mohr said, saying the supervisors weren't allowed to consider opinions on ethanol from the media.

"With that in mind, I vote yes," he said.

There were no outbursts at the decision. The supervisors called for a break. Obetz was whisked away for television interviews while small groups of other company officials quietly gave congratulations to each other and investors and supporters.

The supervisors said the 77 conditions were derived from those offered by Lancaster Biofuels, suggestions from the public and others by township and county planners, as well as the opinions of consultants hired by township.

The conditions cover odors, potential air pollution, lighting, building heights, fencing, landscape screening, protection of groundwater in the area, traffic and noise.

Obetz said this morning he had only glanced at the conditions so far, but that he did not "see anything insurmountable."

Obetz said all the original investors in the project remain committed.

He said plans now are to produce ethanol primarily from corn with the capability to switch to plant matter, if trends change.

He said ethanol from barley could be an interim option.

This was the second attempt to build an ethanol plant at the incinerator site. In 2003, Penn-Mar Ethanol, a group of Pennsylvania and Maryland farmers and agri-businessmen, proposed a smaller ethanol plant.

They were successful in getting the site rezoned from agricultural to industrial, but pulled out in 2005, part-way through the conditional-use process.

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