Westwin incentives agreement has measures to protect Lawton

Provisions that will allow Westwin Elements to build a pilot plant for a cobalt-nickel refinery have been in negotiations since June, with security measures specifically designed to protect the community, community leaders said.

City leaders have been responding to an agreement reached by multiple entities and Westwin Elements that sets new terms in an incentives package agreement that pledges $24 million in local funding and land, plus about $7.5 million in infrastructure upgrades that will make the refinery viable on 480 acres of land located between West Lee Boulevard and Bishop Road, west of Goodyear Boulevard.

Many community leaders have said they are comfortable with the amended incentive agreement, as well as providing money up front, because of new security measures that are in place to protect the local investment. But some have questions about the process and security measures.

Barry Ezerski, chairman of the Lawton Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), said those new security measures are actually stronger than those in the original agreement. Ezerski said one of the agreement’s strongest provisions is that the land and the building comes back to the land’s original owner — Comanche County Industrial Development Authority (CCIDA) — should Westwin fail to meet all requirements. Ezerski said that means in the worst case scenario (the project fails), the building constructed for the pilot plant, along with its construction plans, comes back to CCIDA.

CCIDA and other economic development entities then would have a “spec building” they could market. That spec building (an empty structure that can be used by any industry) can be an incentive for those who might want to come to Lawton, but don’t have time to wait for a structure to be built. LEDC President Brad Cooksey said that is an important advantage Lawton doesn’t have now, estimating one-third of the prospective businesses that looked at Lawton in 2022 wanted a building but Lawton couldn’t provide one.

CCIDA Chairman Paul Ellwanger, a retired banker, said that provision is important.

“If anything goes wrong, we still have the plant,” he said.

Lawton Economic Development Authority Chairman Fred Fitch, who also is a member of CCIDA, said the pilot plant is a definite asset for Lawton should something go wrong. But Fitch doesn’t expect that to happen, explaining there is a “tremendous demand” for the cobalt, nickel and lithium that could be refined at the plant because those substances are critical components of military defense weapons, aircraft and the batteries being used by the growing electric vehicle industry.

Local officials do have some concerns about the potential hazardous materials that would be produced by the plant and its effect on the building.

Karol Haney, one of two CCIDA members who voted against the amended incentives agreement, said she already is being asked questions about the refining process and can’t answer them, which is why she wanted to delay the decision. Haney said the original agreement was based on vapor technology that was to produce very little hazardous waste material, and she wants to know how the carbonyl process being proposed is different.

Haney said she specifically wants to know what kind of hazardous waste would be produced and how it would be transported away from Lawton.

“We saw a train wreck in Pennsylvania that destroyed a community,” she said, of the potential harm a hazardous waste incident could have.

Other CCIDA members were concerned about contamination of the pilot plant, should the Westwin project not materialize and the building’s ownership revert to CCIDA, asking how cleanup efforts could be funded.

Cooksey said Westwin Elements has its own funding source as part of initial fundraising efforts. But Lawton Economic Development Authority member Ernie Sheppard — who also voiced concerns — said those funds will be tied to plant construction, meaning they wouldn’t be available for cleanup.

Ward 4 Councilman George Gill, also a member of the authority, said there will be assets within the pilot plant (such as equipment) that will be worth something, but Sheppard said the agreement must clearly specify that ownership of those assets would revert to Lawton. Fitch said that issue is one of several that could be addressed with the documentation that still must be developed to guide local efforts to manage the project.

Interim City Manager John Ratliff said the incentive agreement already in place has a clause requiring a $14 million cleanup insurance policy that would cover the cost of cleaning up any hazardous materials.