PSO, partners transform unused land
I NOLA — Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and its partners figured out a way to end fallout from the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979.
The In ola River Rail Industrial Park, on the Verdigris River near I nola, initially had been acquired by the utility for its proposed 1,900- megawatt Black Fox nuclear generating station, a project it abandoned about a decade later.
In 2018, the utility, numerous economic development agencies and organizations announced paper products manufacturer Sofidel would build a new $360 million plant within the park.
The 1.8 million-square-foot
plant occupies about 240 acres on t he 2,500 acre site that Sofidel bought and is the project's anchor tenant. In 2018, officials estimated the job to build the facility would create 800 construction jobs.
When the facility opens early next year, officials expect it will permanently employ 300 and will have an annual economic impact of $100 million.
That, they hope, is just the beginning for land the utility initially acquired int he early1970sa sit planned to serve a growing customer base.
Their project to transform idle land into an industrial park was honored this week by the Oklahoma Economic Development Council.
Original idea
When proposed in 1973, plans called for the Black Fox project to include a single nuclear reactor, but those plans were updated to add a second unit, each capable of generating 950 megawatts of power.
The project had an estimated initial price tag of $800 million, with the utility hoping to bring the first unit online in 1982 and the second two years later.
After conducting environmental, site, and health and safety hearings, the utility waited for full construction permits f rom the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But in March 1979, the radiation leak at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania brought construction permit licensing to a halt.
In 1982, the utility canceled its plans to build the project, but continued to own the land, as its top executives at the time believed PSO might someday build a different type of power generating station at the site.
Over the past decade, however, the utility has been increasingly using renewable energy sources to supply power it has needed to meet growing demand. That opened the door to other possible uses f or the property, said Janet Smith, PSO's economic and business development manager.
Smith stressed that once the utility decided it could be used as an industrial site, it only recruited high-impact projects, such as the one involving Sofidel.
“The site due diligence we did to make it marketable was critical,” Smith said. “We wanted to make sure we had our ducks in a row. The site needed to be prepared so we could save time and make it possible for a prospect to get up and running quickly.”
Smith credited t hose efforts and support from nearly two-dozen partner organizations for landing the Sofidel deal.
The project, she said, not only benefits Inola and Rogers County, but all of northeast Oklahoma.
“Thriving communities are our business,” she said. “We want a good quality of life for our communities, and always have been supportive of economic development recruitment or training efforts conducted by state and local agencies.”
As f or promoting the Inola River Rail Industrial Park, Smith said PSO partnered with Oklahoma and its commerce, transportation and environmental quality departments, the Tulsa Regional Chamber, Rogers County and its industrial authority, the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma Natural Gas, the Indian Nations Council of Governments, the Grand Gateway Economic Development Association and the city of Inola, its school district and chamber of commerce.
The utility also worked with legislators, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the Northeast Technology Center/CareerTech, Mayes County Rural Water District No. 2, Rural Economic Development of Inola and the Tulsa Port of Catoosa to make the site's possibilities real.
Incentives offered through Oklahoma's quality jobs and training for industry programs and other grants that helped with infrastructure needs were also offered to Sofidel as incentives to get it to build a plant at the site.
The In ola River Rail Industrial Park has both barge and rail access for current and future tenants, given the Verdigris River is part of the McClellan Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.
PSO and its partners received a project of the year award for communities with populations of 16,000 or less during the Governor's Economic Development Conference, officials said.