Paper Mill Plans Big Project $102 Million Job Will Modernize, Expand Facilities In Millwood

Inland Empire Paper Co. will spend $102 million over the next several years modernizing and expanding its Millwood facilities, officials announced Tuesday.

When completed, the project will add 15 jobs to Inland’s current work force of 119. The company will spend $37 million locally on construction materials and labor, said Wayne Andresen, vice president and general manager of the newsprint producer.

Keeping up with other paper producers means increasing quality, and that’s what the project will accomplish, he said.

“In the long-term, it’s always a survival decision for us,” Andresen said of modernizations. “You have to keep up with the latest technology in the industry.”

Planned improvements include:

A 65,000-square foot building to be constructed parallel to Argonne Ave.

New pulping equipment used to break down wood chips and recycled newspapers into pulp fibers, which are compressed into paper and newsprint.

A new paper machine that will eventually double Inland’s capacity. The company is currently the nation’s smallest newsprint producer, Andresen said.

The company is owned by Cowles Publishing, which also owns and publishes The Spokesman-Review. The newspaper buys 16 percent of Inland’s newsprint. The Seattle Times and other newspapers around the Pacific Northwest also are customers.

Getting permits from the Department of Ecology and the town of Millwood will take between six months and a year. Once ground is broken on the building to house the new paper machine, it will take three years to get it up and running.

The new pulping equipment will enable Inland to use pulp from fast-growing poplar trees along with the pine chips that it hasn’t used before.

The new equipment will also trap steam heat previously lost to the air and use it to dry paper, Andresen said. It will save money and reduce emissions from the plant, he said. Inland will process 60 more tons of wastepaper each day with the new equipment, increasing its capacity by 50 percent.

“That will reduce our production costs here,” Andresen said.

The recent strength in pulp and paper markets have improved the expansion’s timing, but the company would have likely gone ahead regardless of market conditions, he said.

The price hikes have caused many newspapers, including The Spokesman-Review, to shrink the size of their papers, so demand for newsprint has diminished slightly.

However, the demand for newsprint for advertising inserts continues to increase as much as 10 percent a year, Andresen said.

That’s the area where quality makes a difference because advertisers want a high gloss and brilliant color on their inserts to attract attention, he said. The new equipment will help create a glossier product for that market.

For the town of Millwood, the project could be a boon to finances. When completed, it will nearly double the town’s property tax valuation to $213 million from $111 million, Andresen said.

The Spokane Valley town hasn’t decided on how to spend the money it would get if it keeps its taxing system the way it is, said Eva Colomb, clerk/treasurer for Millwood, which has 1,705 residents. “We just heard about it last night,” she said.

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