For Immediate Release

October 5, 1999

FEDERAL GRANT AWARDED FOR SATSOP SITE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded a grant of $106,000 to Grays Harbor County for the design of a business and industrial park at the former Satsop nuclear site, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said Tuesday.

     The grant was made by the Department's Economic Development Administration EDA, which supports job-creating economic development activities in targeted areas around the nation, the congressman said.

     "This funding will jump-start the County's efforts to develop the site into a very attractive business park that offers a large tract of land, access to highways and power, and the fiber optic telecommunications links that are now being installed," Rep. Dicks said. The federal funding will pay for the master planning necessary to design and market the property more effectively, he said.

     The congressman noted that he and Senators Slade Gorton and Patty Murray were successful last month in defeating language on an Energy Department spending bill that could have precluded the Bonneville Power Administration from completing the installation of the new fiber optic cable to the Satsop site. The lawmakers deleted a provision that would have prohibited BPA and other power marketing agencies from entering into agreements similar to the arrangement with the Grays Harbor Public Development Authority to lease excess capacity on BPA=s fiber lines.

     Already, Rep. Dicks said, the county has seen the potential of attracting internet-based businesses to the site, with the location of the first company, SafeHarbor.com, at the Satsop site. AWith the additional fiber infrastructure, the site will be poised to attract more and more of these high-growth companies, and this EDA grant makes a substantial contribution to the county's economic development efforts, he added.

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