Taxpayers trashed?

What often starts curbside waiting in a tied plastic bag has become fodder for Lake County political debate and taxpayer skepticism.

County officials have committed residents to a 20-year contract sending their trash to a $280 million plant that proponents claim will turn it into ethanol.

Many questions need answering. Who is financing the project? Does the process really work? How will the county's municipalities be contractually bound?

Most of all, what happens if the project fails? It would be nothing new for Lake County.

For five months, The Times researched the legal, environmental and political issues behind the facility promising to bring 160 jobs to rural Schneider. The investigation revealed legal and financial hurdles that some say could cost taxpayers as the county prepares to host the nation's first untested commercial waste-to-ethanol plant.

Beginning today in The Times and at nwi.com, a weeklong series will spotlight facts and unknowns about the project. Is it a boon or boondoggle?

Coming Monday: Turning trash to ethanol has a history of political connections. The key players have made attempts to start plants in other parts of the country.

Coming Tuesday: Financing a $280 million trash-to-ethanol plant may carry some risk, but the man in charge refuses to identify the majority investors for this privately run but taxpayer-owned facility.

Coming Wednesday: Did Lake County officials do right by taxpayers in a search for bidders to consolidate waste contracts? And what are the costs and benefits, both to taxpayers and business?

Coming Thursday: So how do you convert everyday trash into ethanol -- and is it even commercially viable for use in cars?

Coming Friday: A closer look at the contract signed by Lake County officials leaves questions about what the county will pay.

Coming Saturday: Earl Powers proposed the plant, won the contract and is the CEO of Powers Energy One of Indiana LLC. We travel to Evansville to meet him.

Coming Sunday: Trash removal contracts in communities throughout the county will expire soon, and what their contracts say about an ethanol plant plays a part in what happens next.