STERLING — The Logan County Commissioners gave approval for an industrial hemp research and development processing facility during a business meeting Tuesday.

Jerry Bornhoft submitted an application for the building and operation of the research and development processing facility, as well as a two-acre greenhouse, for commercial use, to be located at 18091 County Road 35.

During the meeting, Rob Quint, of the Planning and Zoning Department, noted the Planning Commission recommended approval of the project at their Aug. 19 meeting. As part of their recommendation, the board gave conditions that there must be continued compliance with the Colorado Industrial Hemp Act and in the event the facility converts to expanded production the special use permit will need to be amended.

Jason Lauve, of Broomfield, who was key in drafting Colorado’s Industrial Hemp Bill in 2013 and the Phytoremediation Bill in 2012, spoke about the project.

“The hemp project to me is really important, because it’s going to start to give us the ability to demonstrate that we can utilize industrial hemp for specific purposes such as building, textile purposes, adhesives,” he said.

According to Lauve, this will be the first hemp greenhouse in Colorado. Over 100 applications have been submitted to the Department of Agriculture for various research and development and commercial sites. Sterling’s facility would be the state’s second largest facility; the largest operation is in Springfield.

They anticipate employing between 15 and 25 people at the facility, depending on what stage of the process they’re in.

“We have a unique opportunity. Part of the reason that we have interest in doing this in Logan (County), Sterling area is the fact that we truly believe that we have an opportunity to impact economics at a pretty local scale,” Lauve told the commissioners.

He went on to call hemp an “innovation that could put American farms back into high productivity and provide a lot of materials, we can start manufacturing car parts with, a number of other opportunities here in the United States.”

The Logan County facility will be used to study existing cultivars, as well as try to breed a Colorado heritage seed.

“The ultimate goal of the project is to really create a seed stock and product that are both commercially viable, that are really under that .3 percent THC level and in an ideal world we’d be down to zero percent THC, that’s where we want to end up,” said Mark Spoone, of Castle Rock, one of Bornhoft’s partners.

“We’re looking for a seed stock that will create essentially three key things: food, fiber and fuel,” he explained, adding that the project will also “allow us the ability to develop technologies and processes for growing stuff, understand how we lower those THC levels, how we can increase the other components.”

The facility will use a process known as decortication, “that’s the process of taking raw hemp from the field, bailing it up, it goes into the cutter, the decorticator separates the fiber, the dirt and the bark and then the dust, if you will,” Lauve said.

He spoke about the difference between hemp and medical or recreational marijuana, noting the two are like cousins, because they are essentially the same plant, but because of the growing process, “it’s essentially akin to having an apple that you might be able to eat, versus a bitter apple that would be uneatable.”

Commissioner Rocky Samber asked about the protocol for making sure there aren’t plants with THC levels that are very high. Lauve said the state will test part of their field, plus they will have private testing done to monitor THC levels and he said the operation will be transparent about what is found in those tests.

“That’s one of my personal objectives in everything that I’ve been doing with industrial hemp is an open records, open resource for data. We need to learn as much as we can and we need to be as transparent as possible,” he said.

Samber asked what the protocol is if the plants that are raised have higher levels of THC. Those with .3 to 1 percent levels can’t be sold, but they can be used for research and anything with above one percent has to be destroyed.

“I think the key to all of this is to keep everybody in the loop. It’s a new project, it’s a new plant for not only the state, but the country,” Lauve said.

Commissioner Dave Donaldson asked where their initial seed source is coming from and if that’s in compliance with federal restrictions. The seeds will come from existing cultivars in Colorado and other states, as well as seeds that Nolan Kane, an assistant professor at University of Colorado — Boulder who is leading a Cannabis Research Genomics Initiative, has access to from other countries.

“We’re doing everything we can to stay in federal compliance, to stay within state compliance. We’re doing everything we can to provide full disclosure, full transparency to both the state and federal level,” Spoone added, noting Kane does have legal access to the international seeds he’s getting, so he is in compliance.

Tom McClain, from Broomfield, whose great-grandfather planted hemp, stressed the “incredible importance I think Sterling plays in helping re-establish hemp as an agricultural product in this region of the United States,” adding that he believes hemp will provide the ability to “improve our soil, reduce our water dependence.”

“You guys have the opportunity to help demonstrate to Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Texas, the viability of this product,” he said.

In other business, the commissioners approved an intergovernmental agreement between the Logan County Clerk and Recorder and Logan County, which provides for a coordinated election to be held on Nov. 4, concerning a proposal to increase the county sales and use tax to provide funding for a cemetery district. The actual verbiage of the ballot question will be decided at a later date.

Also, due to the Planning and Zoning Department not receiving all the necessary signatures, the commissioners postponed definitely until Sept. 2 the approval of a resolution and application on behalf of Max and Ruby Yvonne Gafford to create a two-lot minor subdivision in part of Lot 4 in Section 7, T6N, R53W of the 6th P.M., north of the Farmer’s Pawnee Canal.

Contact Journal-Advocate staff writer Callie Jones at 970-526-9286 or cjones@journal-advocate.com