SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A plan to build a silicon smelter near the town of Newport, Washington, is on hold after Pend Oreille County officials terminated an agreement to provide utility service to the site.
The Spokesman-Review reports Monday the agreement is being terminated because of a lack of communication between the Pend Oreille Public Utility District and PacWest Silicon, which is proposing the smelter.
Because the utility district has not heard from PacWest Silicon in six months, it refunded $315,000 of the company’s $500,000 deposit intended the bring electricity to the site.
The company has also not responded to the county or to the Washington state Department of Ecology in recent months.
PacWest Silicon has been attempting to build a silicon smelter since 2016 on a site south of the town of Newport, which is on the Washington-Idaho border north of Spokane. The $325 million smelter was to employ about 150 people in the rural area.
The state of Washington awarded a $300,000 grant toward the project in 2016.
The proposed smelter has drawn opposition from some residents of the area and from the Kalispel Tribe.
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