Charles,
I was looking through some of the old Post and Courier archives and came across this article from 1995. It helps in putting things in perspective:
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Green Oasis in fight to survive
by JOHN P. McDERMOTT
Originally Published on 7/16/95
Page: C1
Keyword: Company
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Color staff photo by Wade Spees/ the company's oil-recycling operation in Mount Pleasant
First there was a foul smell. Then things really soured at Green Oasis Environmental Inc.
It was about two years ago that the Mount Pleasant company began testing an innovative and promising technology that converts used motor oil into diesel fuel. Green Oasis president Bill Carraway's plan was to build the recycling units locally and sell them all over the globe. He envisioned Green Oasis being bought out someday by a major oil company.
All that came to a halt last year after complaints surfaced about a noxious odor from the Green Oasis test-unit. In early 1994, state regulators cracked down on the company and ordered it closed.
That led to a costly, protracted permitting dispute between Green Oasis and the Department of Health & Environmental Control. The company finally won the right to test its controversial machine in March, but by then its cash flow had ceased and its $2.8 million in startup capital was spent.
''Absolutely destroyed this company,'' Carraway said in a recent interview. ''Time is nothing but a function of money.''
Today, all that remains at the 2-acre site off Long Point Road are Carraway, a business partner, and a weathered prototypical recycling unit that hasn't processed a drop of oil in 18 months. The company has laid off 27 workers and piled up about $1.3 million in bills, Carraway said.
''It's hard to rationally look at this thing today,'' he said. ''I don't think anybody benefited here from this ordeal.''
Bitter but undaunted, Carraway said he is determined to resurrect his nascent business venture. He recently reached a tentative agreement with Nevada Energy Co. The publicly traded Reno-based company has signed a letter of intent to swap $4 million of its equipment for an equity position in Green Oasis. Also, Carraway said he is trying to line up $2 million to $4 million in fresh capital from two investment banking groups in New York and Florida.
Green Oasis blames DHEC's air-quality chief for most of its troubles. But sources familiar with the company said it has been hamstrung by other obstacles as well, namely its own flawed planning. Technology troubles
A corporate refugee who left Tampa Bay, Fla., for Charleston, Carraway picked up his waste-oil recycling technology through a bad investment several years ago. The process involves heating old oil and distilling it. The end product is a low-grade diesel fuel used to run farm equipment and other off-road vehicles.
A Texaco chemical engineer whom Carraway knew from college urged Carraway to tinker with the technology. He did, at first using a garage for a lab and eventually building larger and larger computerized models.
''I became very intrigued that there were billions of gallons of this stuff being ignored,'' Carraway said of waste oil. ''The stuff was $5 a gallon just 3,000 miles ago. Now it's just dirty.''
Green Oasis sought some financial backing about three years ago. It approached investors - mostly South Carolina residents - and 324 of them ponied up $2.8 million in startup capital.
It wasn't long, though, before a major public relations crisis surfaced. In mid-1993, Green Oasis fired up a prototype unit near the Wando Welch Terminal - the test site is a stone's throw from some Mount Pleasant neighborhoods.
Carraway said he was blindsided by the reaction that ensued. Nearby homeowners complained about an odor from the recycling unit, citing concerns about air quality and property values. Descriptions of the smell varied from rotten eggs to bus fumes.
The complaints prompted DHEC to step in. The agency soon discovered that Green Oasis was operating without a permit. Carraway said he had swallowed the unsound advice of a colleague, who reasoned that DHEC could not possibly have permitting standards for a new, untested process.
''The logic there seemed OK to me,'' Carraway said. ''We started with a blank piece of paper.''
DHEC allowed the company to continue operating under certain conditions as long as it applied for a permit within a set time frame. But the employee assigned to apply for the permit never started the process.
''He kept stalling DHEC off, and I was unaware of it,'' Carraway said.
The unidentified employee was fired, but the damage was done. DHEC ordered Green Oasis to shut down in January 1994 and later fined the company $20,000. Chicken and egg
Carraway pressed on. He modified the test unit by installing a $100,000 pollution control device - called a thermal oxidizer - to eliminate the odor and reduce emissions.
An independent lab tested the device, and Green Oasis submitted the results with its permit application in April 1994. The application stated that the thermal oxidizer would destroy 99.96 percent of emissions, well above state and federal standards.
''We went with the ultimate technology that's available,'' Carraway said.
In June last year, DHEC issued Green Oasis a draft permit, and a public hearing was held a month later. Throughout August, Green Oasis ''was repeatedly assured by DHEC that a final permit would be issued 'next week,' '' according to company attorney Chris Holmes.
Impatient and running low on funds, Green Oasis pushed for a decision from DHEC air-quality chief Carl Richardson, who turned down its request. He said the air-quality information Green Oasis submitted was ''inconclusive.''
''He didn't believe our data,'' Holmes said incredulously.
Holmes said Green Oasis had a ''chicken-and-egg'' situation on its hands - it couldn't prove its emissions claims without starting the unit and it couldn't start the unit without a permit.
Green Oasis appealed. Politicians wrote letters of support, asking DHEC to allow the company to test the unit. The agency didn't budge.
In depositions, company attorneys questioned Richardson's qualifications. They suggested he lacked the background to rule on an air permit because his specialty is in wastewater issues.
''That really wasn't of any substance,'' Richardson said last week. ''The permit decision was based on the information submitted with my staff's input.''
The case was set to go before an administrative law judge in March. The day before the hearing, however, DHEC issued a test permit to Green Oasis. By then the company was nearly broke.
Carraway said he thinks DHEC caved in because it realized it would not win the case. Richardson disagreed.
''That decision was based on additional information that they were able to supply to us up until the time of the settlement,'' he said.
Richardson acknowledged that the Green Oasis situation was ''unique'' and ''we looked at them harder.'' He also said there has been virtually no contact between DHEC and Green Oasis since the test permit was issued.
Problem and promise
With the permitting ordeal behind it, Green Oasis still faces a credibility problem in the marketplace, according to two sources familiar with the company and the petroleum business. Citing legal reasons, the sources agreed to be interviewed on the condition that they not be identified.
The sources said separately that the company went to the market far too early, selling three units before all the kinks were worked out. They also agreed that Green Oasis cannot pin all its troubles on DHEC.
''I'm not sure that's relevant,'' said the first source, who added that permitting hassles are common with new petroleum technologies.
The second source said Green Oasis ''cut corners on research and development.''
The two sources based their statements on visits to Environmental Oil Services LLC, an Idaho company that paid $900,000 for a Green Oasis recycling unit last August.
The unit has been operated but never operated at or near full capacity because of ''internally contained explosions'' caused by mechanical problems, the sources said. Environmental Oil Services declined to comment. Two other units that Green Oasis sold to investors in Bulgaria have never been operated, although Carraway said company representatives in Bulgaria are assembling the machines.
Carraway has acknowledged that the technology requires ''some fine-tuning at this point to finish the R&D. Everything's like a year to 18 months behind.''
Still, the two sources and others said the company's technology is fundamentally sound and holds much promise - despite the mechanical shortcomings.
''I honestly believe in what they're doing,'' the second source said. ''They're near the end of the race. ... I'm still upbeat about it.''
So is Jeff Antisdel, chief executive officer of Nevada Energy. His company has tentatively agreed to trade $4 million in equipment for some preferred stock in Green Oasis. The ''co-generation'' equipment would harness heat from the recycling units and convert it into usable energy.
He said Carraway is ''tenacious, and I like that in a manager.''
''We think this is a very interesting technology,'' Antisdel added. ''If everything we've looked at and read about is true, then this is a breakthrough technology. That's the way we're looking at this deal.''
Whether Green Oasis ever does break through remains up in the air. It won't happen in South Carolina, though, according to Carraway. If he is successful in obtaining fresh backing he plans to move the company. He won't say where.
''Who cares?'' Carraway asked somewhat bitterly. ''I'll take it to a state that's looking to employ people.'' used motor oil into diesel fuel. Green Oasis president Bill Carraway's
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