Officials have been working on the plans for more than a year and said they're getting closer than ever to bringing a $4 billion plant to Wellsville that will mix coal, wood, and other waste and turn it into jet fuel.

"We have three things going for us, we've got the river, the rails and the roads. We got down to one of the four areas and they chose us because of the location,” said Mayor Joe Surace.

Baard Energy is from Vancouver, Wash., and they plan to use 650 acres of land in southern Wellsville to build the plant that will make jet and diesel fuel that will power the U.S. military's jets and tanks.

The entire project is set to employ 1,500 construction workers just to build it. After that, they'll hire as many as 300 employees making about $70,000 per year.

But Surace said that's just a piece of the pie, and it's already attracting other big business.

"It has already attracted one plant and it's a coal plant. It's going to create about 600 mining jobs in the immediate area, so that's a big plus for the coal industry," said Surace.

Surace said the project is a 90 percent guarantee, and they're already doing sample tests in the area and working on the site. If all continues to go as planned, they could be breaking ground by the middle of next year, and be up an running three years after that.

Surace told NEWS9 that Baard Energy is currently in negotiations with the federal government and depending on how much fuel they plan to buy, there's even talk of expanding into Jefferson County.