STEVENS COUNTY: Murray Announces $4.25 Million in Economic Recovery Funding for Job Creating Stevens County Projects

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that two Stevens County projects will receive $4.25 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). The funding will go to projects that are using innovative sources to produce energy for the area.  

“This funding will help put Stevens County on the cutting edge of clean energy production,” said Senator Murray. “And in doing so, it’s going to create local jobs and provide families with new sources of electricity and clean water.  This is precisely the kind of job creating project the Recovery Act was designed to support."

 “This project will be a shot in the arm for this entire region, not just Stevens County,” said Stevens County Commissioner Merrill Ott. “As the months have gone by, waiting for this announcement, we have moved ahead with developing new sources of fuel supply, and other potential markets for the various products that will be produced.  Sen. Murray is absolutely correct in stating that this is the proper use and application of the stimulus funds in creating new jobs, and getting people back to work.  I am very pleased that project is moving forward.  The entire forest industry will benefit all the way around through this application.”

The funding announced includes:

• $4 million to build a 4-7 mega-watt co-generation plant at the new site for the Kulzer BioEnergy Park near Valley, WA.  It will use biomass materials to produce steam, generate electricity and produce specialty wood products,  distilled water, and other byproducts such as bio-oil and bio-char. The plant will be built by Borgford BioEnergy, LLC.
• An additional $250,000 will be used to increase local biomass removal efforts. When left untreated, biomass can increase wildland fire risks to communities and natural resources.

This funding announced today is part of $57 million included for wood-to-energy competitive grants and biomass utilization in the recovery package and made available through the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA).

 

As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Senator Murray worked to ensure that significant investments were made in innovative agricultural and clean energy projects in the Recovery Act in order to benefit agriculture economies like Washington state’s.  Senator Murray voted to pass the Recovery Act on February 13th. The bill was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th.