FORKS — A biomass boiler project could be a reality for Quillayute Valley School District, if everything goes as planned.
The boiler would help heat Forks High School and Forks Middle School during chilly winter months, Rod Fleck, city attorney and planner for the city of Forks, said.
Fleck has been working to get the funding for the boiler through a partnership of the city and the school district.
The biomass boiler would use wood waste from saw mills to burn and heat water which would be used to heat the buildings.
The boiler under consideration would be powerful enough to heat both of the schools, as well as any new wing of the high school that could be built, Fleck said.
The effort is spearheaded by state House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, — who represents the 24th District, which includes Clallam, Jefferson and a portion of Grays Harbor counties — who said she put $1 million for the biomass project into the capital budget from the energy freedom fund.
It has made it into both the House and Senate budgets, Fleck said, but the budgets haven’t been signed yet — so the funding is likely but not assured.
