The Ripon Planning Commission isn’t asked too often to certify a final Environmental Impact Report.

It’s only when the lead agency – in this case, the City of Ripon, acting through the Planning Commission – called in California Environmental Quality Act, determining that the CEQA findings were all in “good faith effort and in full disclosure” for certification necessary for the Diamond Pet Foods Expansion Project, according to City Attorney Tom Terpstra.

Odor from the plant at 942 S. Stockton Ave. has been a concern from the nearby neighborhoods in the past.

The Planning Commission on Monday certified the final EIR and approved the major site plan permit for the expansion project.

“All of the new equipment and facilities associated with the proposed fourth production line would be located inside the existing building,” said Planning Director Ken Zuidervaart.

That expansion would allow Diamond Pet Foods to increase the production capacity at the plant from the current 780 tons of kibble per day to 1,040 tons per day – an increase of 260 tons per day.

Plans call for an additional steam conditioning unit / extruder to be installed in the steam conditioner room as well as a fourth natural gas-fired dryer, dryer cooler and vertical cooler.

Additional blowers, kibble take-up tubes, associated cyclones, and attrition handling equipment would also be put in within the existing production building, according to Zuidervaart.

“The two existing boilers are permitted for and currently have adequate capacity to handle the incremental steam requirements of the fourth steam conditioning unit as well as any other steam requirements,” he said.

The decision by Commissioners was helped out by last month’s joint workshop with the Ripon City Council.

It was there they not only got caught up to speed but heard that the Regenerative Thermal Oxidizes installed in 2018 proved to be the best solution in reducing the organic compound emissions.

Before that, Diamond Pet Foods tried using Cold Plasma Injection.