Catawba County EcoComplex Catawba County’s EcoComplex will consist of MSW and C&D Landfills, ASU Biodiesel Research Facility, Wastewater Sludge (Biosolids) Processing Facility, Lumber Mill, Pallet Producing Company, Greenhouses, Used Tire Recycling Facility, Energy Facility, Landfill-gas-to-energy Plant, Crops for Research Activities, and Educational Facility. The synergies between and with EcoComplex partners form an incubator for innovative green business through research education and outreach. The EcoComplex will employ “green energy” (both electricity and waste heat) generated at its existing Landfill gas-to-energy Facility and upcoming Energy Facility Plant to reduce energy costs for Complex partners, which conveys cost savings to consumers/citizens. Liquids derived from dewatering of the biosolids will be injected into the landfill to generate additional “green power”, create additional landfill airspace by accelerating waste decomposition, and stabilize the waste mass to reduce the potential for future environmental impacts from the landfill. The Greenhouses will employ spent biosolids, ash, gray water, and sawdust (from an adjacent lumber mill) amended soil, energy from the landfill gas-to-energy project, water from the biosolids processing facility, and CO2 from the gas engines in a hydroponics growing process. Our developing EcoComplex, in partnership with Appalachian State University, the North Carolina University System and impending private partners, G&G Lumber Inc., Pallet-One Inc., Petra Inc., and Glasshouses Inc. will become Western North Carolina’s foremost research, technology development, teaching, and outreach Complex that is dedicated to Ecology and Economic Development of “green” energy and business, environment and agriculture development, education, outreach. The Catawba County EcoComplex will be a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary, green energy and environmental complex that converts waste streams into commodities and provides approximately 350 jobs and regional commerce through private-public partnerships. The Complex marries commerce, research and educational resources. The Complex partners work in harmony in the development and industrial applications of innovative energy, biological, and environmental technologies. The Catawba County EcoComplex goal is to promote economic development and create new jobs in the green energy and business, agriculture, and environmental sectors. Green Energy and Environmental innovations are a catalyst for economic development. The EcoComplex is designed to move science from the lab to real world, and to promote Western North Carolina as a center for green energy, agricultural, and environmental innovation and enterprises. Through private-public partnerships and the strengths of multiple institutions, the EcoComplex presents an array of business and research opportunities such as:

• Solidwaste management • Wastewater treatment and sludge management • Water resource management

• Hydrogen Cell production and management • CO2 production and management • Environmental remediation and restoration • Pollution prevention and industrial ecology • Air quality • Agriculture • Biological • Aquaculture • Bioregenerative life support • Environmental technologies • Business development

The EcoComplex will accommodate research involving all aspects related to biological derived energy recovery and utilization as well as the research of hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and ethanol for environmental, agricultural, and energy use.

Probable EcoComplex Investment (in 2007 dollar value): Landfill: N/A (Existing County commitment) Sludge (Biosolids) Processing Facility: $25,000,000 (Public-Private investment) G&G Lumber, Inc. $30,000,000 (Current private investment) $5,000,000 (Future private investment) Pallet-One, Inc. $5,000,000 (Future private investment) Glass Houses, Inc. $25,000,000 (Future private investment) Brick Manufacturing Facility $2,500,000 (Future private investment) Bio-energy Plant $20,000,000 (DBOT Contract) Landfill-gas-to-energy Plant $4,500,000 (County existing investment) $2,000,000 (County future investment) ASU Biodiesel Research Facility $1,000,000 (Property Lease to ASU) Educational Facility TBD (North Carolina University System) Turf Farm/Research TBD (CVCC and NCSU) Estimated Investment: $120,000,000 +

Bio-energy Plant DBOT and ASU Biodiesel Research Facility Lease arrangement are currently under negotiations. The Sludge Processing Facility design will begin this fiscal year with construction anticipated to begin as soon as funding is secured thereafter.