The Enterprise School District biomass boiler is back online and running like a champ, according to Cam Hamilton, business development manager for McKinstry, the engineering firm that designed the heating plant.

The boiler was taken offline in early November after damp and stringy wood material clogged the fuel feed auger, causing both manual and automatic shut off of the system.

Since that time an experiment using other, dryer, denser biomass material has resulted in total success, Hamilton reported.

“The plant has run solid for a week now, since last Monday, Dec. 1, maintaining temperature and pressure,” Hamilton said. “We definitely think the problem was the (consistency of) the fuel we got from Community Smallwoods Solutions (CSS). We’re looking at ways of improving that and we’re absolutely going to return to using CSS product as soon as they get their new machinery.”

CSS has indicated it intends to purchase a hammer mill to break the product down to the density required.

For the last week Merlo Ranch of Starkey, Ore, has supplied the biomass. The private ranch maintains a “banded chipper” that resembles a “landscape chipper hopped up on steroids” Hamilton explained. The same chipper provided the chips for the plant during the Sept. 9 ribbon-cutting ceremony when the boiler was started.

Although fuel from Merlo Ranch is more expensive by the ton, the cost remains the same because the fuel delivers more heat, Hamilton said.

Nevertheless, the district hopes to return to using CSS fuels as soon as possible, maintaining the countywide benefit of using local products.

Superintendents from school districts from across the state and in Washington have been closely watching the biomass plant in Enterprise; some call school district superintendent Brad Royce directly for updates, others call McKinstry.

“People realize that the low oil prices may be a short blip on the horizon,” Hamilton said. “The cost to heat with wood chips is much less. We get calls from other districts regularly.”