PORT ANGELES — The U.S. Department of Commerce stands ready — maybe even eager — to add $2 million to an effort to recycle composite materials in Port Angeles.
The funds would require a local match to develop the Composite Recycling Technology Center on port-owned industrial grounds at William R. Fairchild International Airport.
The Port of Port Angeles has more than that much money in reserves, although it hopes to use a state grant program and local agencies to help raise the match.
The source of the federal funds — the U.S. Economic Development Agency — is the same the port will tap for $1.5 million to replace creosote-covered timber pilings at Terminal 1 on Port Angeles Harbor. That project is set to start in July.
Port officials must act sooner, however, if they’re to reap the $2 million for the Composite Recycling Technology Center, port commissioners learned from their director of business development last week.
Invited to apply
“We were strongly encouraged to submit an application as soon as possible,” Jennifer States told them at their meeting Tuesday.
“They have some additional funds in hand and are looking for opportunities just like this in our geographic area.”
The port wouldn’t have to spend all its surplus to match the grant but could try to leverage state funds earmarked for clean energy and for economic opportunity. It also would seek help from its stated partners in the Composite Recycling Technology Center: the city of Port Angeles, Clallam County and Peninsula College.
Peninsula College is the only community college in the state with a composites manufacturing training program, which it runs at the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center, 905 W. Ninth St., Port Angeles.
It would move its classrooms and laboratories into the new Composite Recycling Technology Center, now a vacant shell at 2220 W. 18th St.
Shell structure
The one-story building encloses 25,000 square feet — enough space to park about 120 automobiles — and could shelter composite-recycling machinery, too.
“It makes sense to spend the dollars on building out the shell structure,” States said.
“It’s a perfect opportunity to move into that building, a state-of-the-art facility.”
Word on the grant could come by June, with Peninsula College starting classes there as soon as September, States said, although she called that schedule “a stretch.”
Fairchild airport already is home to Angeles Composite Technologies Inc., which builds carbon-fiber components for Boeing and Bombardier aircraft.
The recycling center/classroom building is adjacent to ones occupied by Angeles Composites.
Trash turned treasure
The center would recycle some of the 2 million tons — $90 million worth — of composite scrap and waste that Washington state industries currently throw into landfills, some of it having to be treated as hazardous material.
An economic-impact projection published last fall by Olympus Consulting predicted that the center could employ more than 10 people in its first year with a payroll of more than $922,000.
Those figures would rise to 105 workers making more than $7 million after five years. By that time, the center would produce nearly $580,000 in business taxes, according to the forecast.
An average worker’s earnings would start at about $67,000 a year and climb to almost $71,000 after five years, the forecast said.
Besides the machines that Peninsula College would move into the Composite Recycling Technology Center, the port has a shopping list of equipment needed to recycle composites.
Port officials could inspect some of that machinery when they attend a three-day composites trade show in France next month.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
