Sunnyside OKs agreement to build biomethane plant

YAKIMA — Sunnyside’s city council has approved an agreement with the Port of Sunnyside and Pacific Ag to construct infrastructure for a new renewable natural gas plant near Sunnyside.

The plant will produce renewable natural gas, or biomethane. Pacific Ag, based in Oregon, uses crop residue and dairy manure from growers to produce biomethane, and will build the facility, according to information from the company and the city.

The plant will produce 800,000 million British thermal units of renewable natural gas each year, according to Pacific Ag’s website. That amount of energy would be roughly equivalent to more than 140,000 barrels of oil.

The city and the port will finance construction of sewer pipelines, water mains and a roadway, as well as other infrastructure, which will make the site accessible for future industrial development, City Manager Elizabeth Alba said during a meeting Monday.

The infrastructure project will cost just over $12 million. Sunnyside will be responsible for just over half those funds.

“The benefits are going to be huge for us. This is an investment, not only in Pacific Ag in there, but it’s an investment in Sunnyside’s future,” Alba said.

Alba said the project has received $8 million from Yakima County’s Supporting Investment in Economic Development and Washington’s Community Economic Revitalization Board. About $1.9 million of those funds will be loaned from CERB to the port, while the city will be responsible for a loan of about $2.4 million.

The rest of the funds for the project will come from the sale of the property to Pacific Ag, a grant from the city and in-house cash from the city and the port.