Alex Taylor

artaylor@lohud.com

Ending a year-long environmental battle, Anellotech is cancelling its plans to build a pilot plant in Pearl River, citing high construction costs.

The bio-chemical company had wanted to add a 2,400-square-feet testing facility with a 15-foot vent pipe to its existing location at the Pfizer campus at 401 North Middletown Road. On Wednesday, however, the company announced it has decided to move the pilot plant to Silsbee, Texas, about 90 miles northeast of Houston, to be completed by the end of the year.

Anellotech's headquarters and research division will remain in Rockland County.

In a statement, CEO David Sudolsky said the start-up had received bids from five construction companies to build in Pearl River, but that "all the quotes were significantly above our target."

"The Texas location provides low capital and also low operating expense, access to a highly skilled workforce, and an infrastructure," he said in a statement.

Whatever the economic rationale, however, the company's decision was greeted as an unambiguous victory by a grass-roots group of residents and politicians who spent the past year denouncing the project, mobilizing on social media and in public and studding swaths of Pearl River and Nanuet with skull and crossbones signs to make their point about the threat posed by emissions.

The group, Stop Anellotech, was challenging the company in state Supreme Court.

Brian Condon, a Nanuet lawyer representing the group, hailed the decision.

"[R]esidents of Clarkstown and Orangetown can breathe a little easier knowing that their health, safety and welfare will not be compromised by the threat of BTX," he said, adding, "The project did not belong in a residential community and the members of Stop Anellotech are very proud of its efforts."

But Rockland Business Association President and CEO Al Samuels described Anellotech's decison as a lesson in economics, not environmentalism. New York could learn a thing or two from the Lone Star State - particularly its tax breaks and other business incentives.

"The Northeast has a very hard time keeping up," he said.

Anellotech first applied for permits in the fall of 2014.

As envisioned, the facility would have been used to test a patent-pending technique of converting non-food organic waste into a mix of chemicals, including benzene.The company said emissions would be captured and converted into harmless carbon dioxide and water vapor. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation and two independent environmental engineering firms released studies saying the plant's emissions will not affect public health.

Meanwhile, business groups argued the facility could create high-tech jobs and inject money into the tax base. But there was also strong opposition from groups worried about the health effects, as well as the quality of life in Pearl River and neighboring Nanuet. They latched onto the 15-foot vent pipe — they called it a "smokestack" — as a symbol of the project's impact to air quality and public health.

Orangetown Supervisor Andy Stewart cited concerns over health risks that the plant could bring.

"[T]he possible danger to public health was simply too great a risk to take relative to the very small economic benefits provided," he said.

This is the second time in recent months a major Rockland County project has been cancelled.

In October, Haverstraw withdrew its proposal for a $250 million Legoland mega-amusement park in the face of mounting concerns from residents over traffic and property values.

Twitter: @alextailored