A Longview engineer who has mapped the former Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant acreage does not believe industry will ever build on the property.

It would cost so much for industrialists to construct what they need in the way of infrastructure they would not be able to afford the project, said Dr. W. Lee Guice, owner of Guice Engineering Sciences.

However, other business professionals believe, while it would be difficult, it is possible to bring industry in, depending on the type of facility.

Guice has sent e-mails to people involved in the controversy over possible lake development, asserting his viewpoint, because "You have to have logic," something he believes adherents on both sides have ignored.

"All I am hearing is rhetoric ... particularly from the environmental side," he said.

About 6,000 acres of the original 8,000-acre property was used to create the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Officials cut the refuge ribbon last year.

The remaining acreage is surrounded, for the most part, by the wildlife refuge with an exit to Farm-To-Market Road 2198.

U.S. Army employees are now attempting to cleanse contaminants from Longhorn's soil and ground water. They believe a majority of the contaminants will be gone by 2007.

Now a group of local businessmen and professionals want to use a portion of the still-contaminated property for potential industrial development, while environmentalists oppose it.

Guice – who mapped the property in the late 90s, while working for the Caddo Lake Institute – said even the prospect of free land would not offset costs for businessmen attempting to locate on the acreage.

From eight to 10 miles of electricity lines would have to be constructed, Guice said, which could cost $5,000 a mile.

Karnack could not provide enough water, he said, because "it's a rural water system with two wells. You can't get enough water for industry.

"You could pump water from the lake, but you would have to treat it.

"So you would have to build a treatment plant."

A sewage system would have to be constructed, and that costs at least $50,000, he said, adding by now all the profit from having obtained free land would be gone.

Industries operate on raw materials that must be brought to their plants, he said, and they must ship out.

But the Longhorn roads are in such bad condition that Guice believes new roads would have to be built.

As if that wasn't enough, Guice said Texas limits weight on its farm-to-market roads to 54,280 pounds while most 18-wheelers weigh about 80,000 pounds.

So FM 2198 would have to be rebuilt to state highway standards all the way to State Highway 43, about a mile, Guice said, adding the improvement would cost about $500,000.