Tanks will allow Tidewater Terminal Co. to deliver ethanol-petroleum throughout region

A $12.5 million ethanol facility is coming online in

August at the Tidewater Terminal Co. in Pasco.

“Right now we’re going through our testing phase to make

sure all our set points are where they need to be,” said Mark Davis, general

manager of Tidewater.

The testing is being done on the pump system created for

two massive tanks, standing nearly 60 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter at 671

Tank Farm Road.

Each can hold 65,000 barrels of liquid. They will be used

for storing ethanol and petroleum, and then blending the two for use as fuel

around the region.

“We’re a fuel station for fuel stations,” said Nigel

Stevenson, Tidewater’s capital projects manager. “We fill up fuel trucks the

way you’d fill up your car at Costco or 7-Eleven.” The blended fuel is required

under a state mandate for biofuel to produce cleaner emissions.

The new Snake River Terminal Ethanol Facility includes

720-foot long unloading and loading racks to fill train cars.

“It’s a fairly automated system,” Davis said. “You hook

the cars up and hit the button and the pumps slowly ramp up and pump it into

the tank, and when it’s done, you just reverse the process.”

The 128-acre terminal was already capable of blending

biofuel but not at the capacity the new facility will allow.

“We bring 96 cars in on a unit train,” Davis said. “That

unit train will land here and we’ll discharge it in 24 hours now. It used to

take six days instead of one day.”

Construction on the project began last summer.

“Almost all of that money was spent using local

contractors with local materials and local suppliers. A very large part of that

money stayed here in the community. It gives us an opportunity to increase

employment at Tidewater here as well,” Davis said.

The company employs 36 people at the terminal, but Davis

doesn’t know how many new terminal operators will be needed to run the new

facility. “I’d be throwing darts,” he said.

Davis said the positions will be “good-paying” jobs with

salaries north of $25 an hour.

“We have an idea of how the market’s going to respond,

but if it responds in a really positive way, we could be looking for more

people,” he said.

Founded in 1952, Tidewater also operates barge lines that

run along the local rivers as far west as Astoria, Oregon. It ships dry

products like wheat, wood chips and corn, and liquid products like fertilizer

and petroleum. It has facilities in Pasco and Umatilla.

“For all intents and purposes, it’s like two separate

companies. One is the barge line and the other is the terminal,” Davis said.

The increased capacity for ethanol and petroleum storage

at the Pasco terminal was built to meet market demand. Straight, denatured

ethanol also can be dispatched by the terminal for sale in other markets.

A ribbon-cutting celebration is set for

Aug. 27 at the new facility.