Columbia Pulp Begins Purchase of Local Straw

STARBUCK – Columbia Pulp LLC hasn’t broken ground yet on its 449-acre pulp mill near Lyons Ferry, but “exciting movement” continues to happen behind closed doors, according to Columbia County Planning Director Kim Lyonnais.

The company began receiving wheat straw for storage on Monday of this week, board member and LLC manager John Begley told The Times. Columbia Pulp has leased space within two miles of the future site of the mill for the storage of 20,000 to 30,000 tons of straw.

“This is all coming from local farms,” Begley said. “We’re beginning to ramp up our straw purchase in anticipation of opening next year.”

The mill, which Begley said will process approximately 220,000 tons of straw annually when fully operational, will be located on Highway 261 between Starbuck and the Snake River. CP operators expect to continue to use all local wheat straw for processing.

“About 4 million tons of straw is produced annually within a 75-mile radius of the site,” Begley said. “We expect to be able to get all we need from within that radius.”

The pulp produced will be sent to a “nearby” mill to be made into paper – though which paper mill will be receiving the pulp is not yet public information, Begley said.

All water rights have been transferred and permits for construction of the pulp mill are complete, according to Begley. The company is just waiting for funding to be in place before breaking ground, he said.

Columbia Pulp was approved this spring for a $100 million non-recourse revenue bond by the Washington Economic Development Finance Authority. Begley said at the time that everyone had hoped the bonds would close by June, but the process is “fairly detailed,” he said in April.

The process should be complete in about a month, Begley said on Monday. Once the money is available for construction, passers-by should see activity at the site immediately, he said.

“All of this is so encouraging,” Lyonnais, county planning director, said last week. “We can’t see everything that’s happening with this project right now, but they’re doing a lot.”