Oil refinery wants Kimberly-Clark site
EVERETT - An oil refining company is making a pitch to the city to take over the Kimberly-Clark Mill site.
Representatives from Energex Fuel Corporation, based in Florida, came before the City Council last week to promote the company.
A representative said Energex already approached Kimberly-Clark to buy the mill site. Energex is in the oil refining business and sells crude oil and aviation fuel, according to the company website. Company representatives said last week Energex wants to refine biofuels at the site.
In February, the City Council adopted a six-month development moratorium on the Kimberly-Clark site. The moratorium lasts through July. That’s how long the city expects to take to develop a long-range plan for the 66-acre Kimberly-Clark site and nearly 30 acres around it owned by ExxonMobil and the city.
The city hired a consultant to help it plan the site’s future.
Kimberly-Clark also is working with a real estate broker, city chief financial officer Debra Bryant said last week.
The city wants to keep industrial uses on the waterfront site.
Last week the city held a public hearing on the moratorium. Two representatives from Energex were the only ones to speak. There also was a public information meeting about the waterfront after press time in the Weyerhaeuser Room at Everett Station.
Energex representatives worry the mill’s broker will want to chop up the land into multiple sites to sell. Energex wants to preserve the buildings that are there now.
Kimberly-Clark has a demolition permit for the site and may start demolishing buildings as soon as this summer.
The site requires cleanup per the state Department of Ecology.
A water channel near the mill called the East Waterway and the inland soil where the mill sits are contaminated with dioxin and other chemicals from decades of waterfront industry.
A major suitor for the site, Atlas Holdings LLC, fell away in December when its financial backer walked away after new findings came out at the eleventh hour of negotiations, according to Mayor Ray Stephanson. Atlas’ consultant found the site might need more cleanup than expected.
Kimberly-Clark was the last major mill along Everett’s waterfront. The paper mill industry supported Everett families for decades.

By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published April 4, 2012