Freshwater Tissue owner Bob Simpson made the announcement in a press release this morning. The last remaining pulp mill on the Samoa peninsula — a feature of the Humboldt County skyline for the last 50 years, for better and worse — will be parted out.
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2010 – Samoa Pulp Mill Permanently Closed
Samoa, Ca – Freshwater Tissue Company announced the permanent closure of the Samoa pulp mill. Evergreen Pulp, the prior owners of the pulp mill, closed the mill in October of 2008 after a global collapse of the banking industry left Evergreen insolvent.
Freshwater Tissue purchased the Samoa mill assets in February of 2009 with a vision of converting the pulp mill to an integrated pulp and tissue plant that would convert forest residuals into consumer-ready, eco-friendly toilet paper. The projected cost of the plant conversion was $400 million. The owners anticipated borrowing the funds from the Department of Energy. Unfortunately, DOE loans were only available to green energy projects, such as wind energy, solar energy, and the production of electric cars.
After failing to fund the integrated tissue mill project, Freshwater scaled down its business plan and reduced its capital requirement to $30 million. The company’s new plan was to produce eco-friendly pulp, and it secured a 10-year sales contract for 100% of its production. Freshwater obtained all necessary regulatory permits to re-open the mill, it received unprecedented environmental and labor support, and it had bi-partisan government support. When the company received notice from the U.S.D.A. that it qualified for a $25 million loan guarantee Freshwater believed a loan was certain, but it soon discovered banks would not loan against a government backed guarantee.
In a statement issued by Robert M. Simpson, Freshwater’s President, Simpson said “I am disappointed in our failure to re-start the pulp mill. We exhausted all possible means of funding the project with the intention of re-hiring union workers. Unfortunately, FDIC regulations made it impossible for banks to finance startup projects like ours.”
Freshwater reported that it has received an offer for its power and recovery boiler. When asked about the offer Simpson said “we have two groups interested in acquiring the boiler but we are not in contract and we don’t have any expectation as to when a sale will be completed.” Simpson didn’t offer any details of Freshwater’s future plans for the 156 acre industrial site.Â
This article appears in Bigfoot and the Trolls.
Good riddance.
The greenest pulp mill on the pacific rim, “good riddance”… I dont know snickers… I am glad you have a good job.
If the company is speaking through this news release, why does it state that “Freshwater reported” a single offer on the boiler and in the very next sentence quote the president clarifying there are two offers? Did a previous news release announce a single offer that now needs to be clarified?
The last sentence is just silly if it’s not being written by a reporter.
AJ, Think before you speak. The sentence clearly states that there are two interested parties and one offer. This is not a brain teaser, at least not for most of us.
The main point is that we have now lost yet another chance for decent jobs. When will the extremists realize that we need real industry, as in the kind that actually produces something people want. The only growth industry we have had for twenty (or more) years is canabis and government and clearly neither is reliable enough to sustain us. I want to protect our environment as much as anyone but we have to stop saying no to everything that doesn’t say “eco” in front of it. We can’t protect anything without a viable economy and we simply don’t have one. Hopefully in this election we will look to candidates who are more moderate and understand basic economics. We no longer have the luxury of extremism.
“…we have to stop saying no to everything that doesn’t say ‘eco’ in front of it.”
But “eco-friendly toilet paper” does have “eco” in front of it.
@ 6 P.M.
When you talk about candidates who understand basic economics, you’re not talking about advocates of the policies that led to the crash of 2008, are you? You know, unregulated capital markets and rampant speculation on securities based on…….nothing.
I hope they demolish that eyesore ASAP. It is the ugliest thing for miles and has for decades completely ruined the visual aesthetic of the Humboldt Bay Area. They thought getting rid of the burnt broccoli smell was a big deal, but that massive ugly thing still looms over the horizon, ruining any attempt to appreciate a sunset.
Maybe Arkley will get with it and finally finish demolishing the decrepit hulks left on his property next door. Then we can actually look out west and actually SEE the sea instead of a huge ugly industrial facility.
I’d much rather it be the (environmentally updated) pulp mill than a typical shopping center constantly cranking out traffic and garbage all over the surrounding area. Or a few four story residential buildings doing the same thing. I hope somebody takes advantage of that spot (and all the other hot topic ones) for the sake of something more free and longstanding for everybody…something that 100 years from now people will look to with genuine interest and ask “when was that built?”…and the question will be as much about the nature of any physical structures.
!00 years from now, there probably won’t be a spit to, uh, spit at due to rising sea levels, no matter what gets built there in the meantime.
It was the challenge of sourcing adequate capital that stopped the refurbishing and re-opening of the mill, not anti-growth or exteme environmentalism. It’s truly a shame that this project did not get the kind of federal support and private investment it needed. The mill could have been a great poster child for smart spending of stimulus dollars.
@Nark
Tastes differ. I liked (from a distance) the mills and especially their huge chimneys with smoke plumes against the background of the ocean. It had the mysteriousness of a de Chirico painting.
And today I like (as seen from Eureka) the haunted mysteriousness of the hulk of the abandoned Simpson mill.
who bought the new power and recovery boilers?
who bought the power and recovery boilers