Permits filed for McCoy train loader

McCoy Land Co. applied last week for a building permit to build six grain tanks and an office at the newly-formed company’s proposed grain terminal south of Rosalia.

McCoy Land Co., a consortium of local grain cooperatives PNW Farmers Co-op and Co-Ag, is planning to build a high-speed high-volume facility to load large shuttle trains of grain.

Value of the project on the permits was $9,822,108. The project will be located on a flat just north of McCoy Siding on Highway 271 between Rosalia and Oakesdale.

The McCoy loader will provide a direct connection to the BNSF mainline connection at Marshall from the P&L line which runs north and south along eastern Whitman County.

The state Department of Ecology last month deemed the project met air pollution standards. County officials issued the project a conditional use permit last summer.

According to plans included in the company’s application for a conditional use permit from the county, the facility will have tanks capable of holding 430,000 bushels of grain. It will also include a circular rail loop that would stem from the state-owned P&L railroad, encircling the grain tanks.

The Washington & Idaho Railway has been filling 110-car unit trains out of stations in Oakesdale, Plaza and Spangle since December 2008.

The new facility would make that process go significantly faster. The permit application said it would be able to load out grain at 60,000 bushels an hour.

As early as six years ago, rail traffic was shut down along shortline railroads in eastern Washington

Larger trains are preferred by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe because they can switch them from the P&L shortline to the mainline track at Marshall for direct shipment to Portland via Ritzville and Pasco.

The Port of Whitman County has applied for a $8.5 million grant form the federal department of transportation to upgrade track and stabilize bridges on the line so those larger trains can travel faster.

The port is part of the Palouse River and Coulee City Rail Authority, which formed in 2008 to oversee more than 300 miles of state-owned track in Whitman, Grant, Lincoln and Spokane counties.