Btu Energy Picks Plant Site Company Plans To Build Power, Fertilizer Plants Near Walla Walla

A Bellevue-based energy company wants to build a natural gas-fired power plant and a fertilizer factory in a southeastern Washington project that could cost as much as $210 million.

Btu Energy Inc., which signed a purchase agreement Thursday for a 188-acre parcel in Wallula, hopes to supply inexpensive power to local industry and capitalize on a global shortage of nitrogen fertilizers.

The company has until Dec. 31 to exercise its option to buy the property for $1.2 million from the Port of Walla Walla, port manager Jim Kuntz said.

Btu Energy could back out of the deal if a study indicates the land is unsuitable.

However, company officials said they already have spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to confirm the site is ideal. Btu Energy has already begun the environmental permitting process.

“We wouldn’t be going through the process if we didn’t intend to follow through with the agreement,” Vice President Robert Divers said.

Btu Energy chose the site in part because of an existing nearby natural gas line and the proximity to rail lines, officials said.

Depending on the size chosen for the energy plant, the two facilities would employ as many as 54 people, the company said.

The co-generation plant could produce from 15 megawatts to 240 megawatts of electricity, with the cost of a 240-megawatt plant estimated at $160 million.

The generating capacity would depend on whether neighboring industrial plants such as a Boise Cascade mill and Ponderosa Fibres office paper recycling plant decide to buy electricity or steam from the energy plant, Divers said.

The fertilizer plant, the first phase of the project, is scheduled to open in mid-1997 and would produce 350 tons of dry granulated urea pellets daily. About 20 full-time employees would be hired.