Geoff Davies, the new project manager at Creemore Springs Brewery, has the infectious energy of a man who has found his dream job. He’ll need it, as the next few years at the brewery are shaping up to be busy ones.
Davies was hired by Creemore Springs in May, shortly after the brewery’s expansion plans were approved in principle by the Ontario Municipal Board. The Collingwood resident is now responsible for overseeing all aspects of the expansion, and has been working hard to meet a couple of benchmarks required by the OMB before construction can begin.
The first is to complete a site plan agreement for the project and have it approved by all parties to the OMB hearing. Such a document was not finalized at the time of the OMB decision due to the fact that the brewery still had to gain approval for the expansion from the Ministry of the Environment; at the time, it was acknowledged that process might result in changes to the brewery’s plans, and that site plan approval should wait until those changes were clear.
Working concurrently with the MOE, Creemore Springs submitted detailed drawings to Clearview Township in the summer, and received comments back from the municipality soon after. According to Davies, those comments were minimal, asking mostly for aesthetic things like wider sidewalks and wrought-iron fencing on the corners of the property to enhance visibility for drivers making turns. The brewery has since modified its drawings to meet the Township’s demands, and a final site plan application is expected to be submitted at the beginning of November. At that point, copies of the proposed site plan will also be distributed to the other parties to the hearing, Simcoe County and neighbours Paul Vorstermans and Christine and Austin Boake.
If all parties agree to the final site plan, they must then present it to the OMB, likely during a teleconference. Davies is hoping – “You have to work toward something,” he says of his habit of making optimistic predictions – that this can all be done by the end of the year.
The second requirement of the OMB decision, one that’s taken considerable time and investment over the past few months, was for the brewery to obtain two Environmental Compliance Approvals from the Ministry of the Environment – one for its existing operation and one for the proposed expanded facility. As Creemore Springs vice president and brewmaster Gordon Fuller explained during the OMB hearing, the brewery had always operated with a Ministry of Environment Certificate of Approval for its air emissions, but had never been aware it needed one for noise and odour until it started planning the expansion.
On the noise side, consultants for the brewery determined all potential “points of impact” in the neighbourhood around the brewery and have since satisfied the Ministry of Environment that all sources of offending noise have been dealt with, save one – the loading of the malt silo, which is currently situated on the front of the building. That operation will be moved to the rear of the building as part of the expansion, so the brewery has been given a temporary pass with regard to that source.
The odour issue was a more difficult one, with the MOE requiring that no smell coming from the brewery be greater than one Odour Unit in scale, with an Odour Unit defined as the point when 50 per cent of the population cannot detect the smell. After first flirting with the idea of a tall stack, the brewery instead installed a $250,000 odour abatement and heat recycling unit on the building’s roof in July. Capturing all vapours discharged from the brewhouse, the unit separates out all odour-causing elements and reroutes them back under the kettle, where they are fed into the combustion chamber and burnt. Additionally, the unit captures previously wasted heat and allows it to be re-used in the brewing process, increasing the plant’s energy efficiency.
With the addition of the odour abatement unit, the Ministry of Environment now agrees with the brewery’s consultants that all emissions from Creemore Springs’ current operations measure less than one Odour Unit. Davies also pointed out that the brewery is in the process of taking voluntary measures to further mitigate odour, in an effort to be a good neighbour.
With both noise and odour taken care of with regard to existing operations, Davies has now moved on to the future, and in mid-September the brewery submitted an application to the Ministry of Environment for an amended Environmental Compliance Approval to cover the planned expanded operation. The MOE does have a backlog of these applications, and the brewery was informed that it may take three to eight months before the new ECA can be granted.
“Obviously, we’re hoping for three, so we can get everything wrapped up by the end of the year,” said Davies. “And the reason why is that Creemore Springs is doing really well. There would be great harmony with our business plan were we able to get going by the end of the first quarter of next year.”
The project’s first phase, which Davies is optimistic could get underway as early as mid-January, would include the new and relocated infrastructure at the back of the building (including six new 45,000-litre fermentation tanks, indoor spent-grain offloading, covered malt delivery and an indoor silo, water and CO2 tanks and garbage storage); the new 450-square-metre warehouse with four rear-side truck bays on the south side of the existing building; the water and sewer site works; and parking and landscaping on the south and east sides of the property. The goal is to have the infrastructure on the back finished and beer in the new fermenters by April 1, the site works, parking and landscaping done by summer and the warehouse done by fall.
The project’s second phase, encompassing new office space, a new facade on Mill Street, and three more fermentation tanks, would be completed in 2014 and 2015. In the meantime, Clearview Township is requiring an “interim appearance plan” featuring temporary landscaping and reusable trees and flower pots in order to maintain a pleasing view from Mill Street until the second phase is completed.
Another component of the brewery’s plans fell into place on September 17, when the company’s new distribution facility opened on Airport Road just south of Stayner. Seven full-time staff, whose duties relate primarily to distribution, have relocated to that location, and all of the small delivery trucks that have traditionally picked up beer directly from the brewery are now operating out of the new facility.
Davies also said a great deal has been done to improve drivers’ behaviours around the brewery. A strict no-idling rule has been put in place, trucks are parked in front of Creemore Springs only, and when drivers arrive in Creemore in the early morning before the brewery is open for business, they are now asked to wait outside of town.
“We’ve tried to encourage an overall culture of courteousness, rather than just impose a list of rules,” said Davies. “And that goes for all of our staff. We know this expansion is going to be disruptive, and the best thing we can do is be good citizens and good neighbours.”
To that end, Davies and Fuller continue to sit on an advisory committee set up by the OMB that includes representation from all the parties to the hearing. That committee has been kept abreast of all of the brewery’s developments and has had some good input into how things are proceeding.
“The committee will really become a liaison with the community once the construction gets started,” said Davies.
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