Fertilizer distributor to open at Pocatello FMC site

Valley Agronomics plans to break ground this winter on a facility at the former FMC plant site that will be Idaho’s largest fertilizer storage and distribution center.

The Idaho-based company plans to make a $12 million investment for the project, and intends to lease 25 acres at the former plant for up to a century, said Richard Lloyd, the company’s general manager.

Lloyd said the facility will serve as a regional hub, with the capacity to store up to 25,000 tons of dry fertilizer and 10,000 tons of liquid fertilizer. Valley intends to break ground on the fertilizer storage facilities in February, if the weather cooperates, and have staff doing business out of the Pocatello area by the spring of 2017. All of the facilities, including new office buildings, should be complete by the fall of 2017, he said.

Lloyd said the property has a rail spur with the capacity to accommodate unit trains, which can directly transport more than 100 rail cars filled with fertilizer, rather than bringing in cars individually. Lloyd said no other commercial fertilizer distributor in the state can handle unit trains, and Union Pacific estimates the access will save Valley up to $20 per ton on freight costs.

Lloyd said leasing the property is advantageous, as FMC will continue shouldering the burden of cleaning up the Superfund site. FMC once operated the world’s largest elemental phosphorus plant at the site, using the product to produce food-grade phosphoric acid at other facilities. Lloyd expects his company will be the first of many businesses to announce plans to build at the former FMC site, which covers 1,500 acres on the outskirts of Pocatello, in Power County.