The site Tethys has selected is south of Highway 20 and east of Reservation Rd. It is currently inside the city border on property used by Sunland Bark and Topsoils and others.
On Friday, city Planning Director Ryan Larsen sent an email to the Mayor and City Council members saying he had received a submittal from Tethys and that he had asked an attorney for the city, Stephen DiJulio, to certify that, “the information required in the contract is in compliance with the water service agreement. Mr. DiJulio has provided the city with a memorandum indicating compliance with Section 3.1 of the Agreement.”
Larsen also circulated DiJulio’s memorandum, as well as a cover letter from an attorney for Tethys, as well as a letter from an engineering firm confirming the acreage and a map of the proposed site.
In October of 2010, the city and Tethys reached an agreement for the city to provide up to 5 million gallons per day to Tethys and gives Tethys 2 years after the Dec. 1, 2012 deadline to apply for permits. The plant must be up and running by June 1, 2018, according to the contract.
Larsen’s email forwarded a copy of Stephen DiJulio’s memorandum, which points out that Tethys has the right to acquire 30.33 acres of property inside the City and that the property includes an existing rail line.
As far as Tethys is concerned, the city’s application to expand the Urban Growth Area is apparently moot. The city may go ahead with the UGA application to the county, but it doesn’t appear to be necessary for the Tethys plant.
Tethys proposes to build a facility as large as one-million square feet, about 20 times larger than our Safeway store, to operate a state-of-the-art contract manufacturing plant. It would reportedly be the largest bottling plant in the country.
The Tethys proposal has met with tough citizen opposition for proposing to use such a large quantity of Skagit River water, as well as expected rail and truck traffic that the plant will generate.