Port of Mattawa to receive grant, will improve treatment plant

MATTAWA — The Port of Mattawa will receive $618,000 in state grant funding for the next phase of its water treatment project as part of Washington’s $6 billion, 2021-23 capital budget.

According to Lars Leland, executive director of the Port of Mattawa, the money will fund an improvement and expansion of the port’s wastewater treatment facility, which currently treats enough wine waste to irrigate roughly 71 acres of grapes and cherries in the Mattawa area.

Leland said the port built its own wastewater treatment system around 15 years ago to deal with the waste from local wine producers overwhelming Mattawa’s sewage treatment system.

“Wine waste is different from human sewage,” Leland said. “It needs different microbes to process it.”

The Port of Mattawa operates two industrial parks, Wahluke Industrial Park and Sentinal Gap Industrial Park, which host four winemakers — Milbrandt Vineyard, Wahluke Wine Company, Ginko Forest Estate Winery, and Jones of Washington. Leland said local winemakers currently produce around 100 million gallons per year of wine, much of it under contract to grocery store labels like Kirkland.

Leland also said the improvements are essential for the next proposed phase, which will see an expansion of the port’s water storage ponds and treatment lagoons to 18 million gallons from the current 3.5 million. That expansion is expected to cost around $8 million, and Leland said the port will pursue federal funds to cover the costs.

“We need it,” he said. “The wineries cannot expand without another lagoon.”

Washington state is the nation’s second-largest wine producing state and is home to more than 1,000 vineyards. The Royal Slope and the Mattawa areas have become home to a number of bulk and boutique wine producers over the last few years.

According to Leland, around 250 people are employed by winemakers in the Mattawa area.

The project is just one of many locally funded projects included in the upcoming capital budget, which also includes $193,000 for improvements to the Royal City water system. Statewide, the capital plan also includes $413 million for the expansion of rural broadband and $1 billion to build and refurbish schools across the state.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.