Eastern WA newcomer starts hiring for $25M pipe plant near Tri-Cities
This spring, a new company will begin turning resin into a key building material at a plant about 15 miles southeast of Pasco.
When Century Pipe LLC fires up production of its high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe plant at Wallula Gap, it won’t stop.
Once the equipment starts, it keeps going, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year as it converts resin and color into pipe used in a wide variety of building and infrastructure settings, said Bryan Eeles, vice president for operations.
Century Pipe is about a month away from starting production at its newly-built facility. It is finalizing a rail spur, completing wiring the building and training the 25 to 30 workers it has hired.
Walla Walla County has issued an occupancy permit.
Five years in the making, Century Pipe is the latest manufacturer to choose Wallula Gap for a multimillion dollar investment.
Company leaders say they were drawn by access to Highway 12 and railroads, low-cost power and workers with manufacturing experience, both in the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla.
Century Pipe is led by Rene Collin, a San Antonio, Texas, plastics industry veteran who partnered with pipe industry experts to launch the business. The team aims to capitalize on growing demand for HDPE pipe and enter a market with few manufacturers.
Collin joked that as Texans, the team was pleased to find “hippy” stereotypes about the Pacific Northwest were unfounded after visiting both the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla.
He said most pipe plants are in rural areas, where experienced workers can be hard to find. His team was drawn by the 320,000 people in the Tri-Cities and 60,000 in Walla Walla.
Agricultural processing and industrial manufacturing in the area suggested they’d find knowledgeable workers.
They were not disappointed when they visited the Tri-Cities and then, Walla Walla.
“We were just so impressed with the Tri-Cities from the first day we went out there,” he said.
Century Pipe purchased a 16-acre site on Railex Road from the Port of Walla Walla and set out to construct its plant.
The $25 million facility consists of a 50,000-square-foot production space and a 3,000-square-foot office addition. Fowler Construction is the contractor behind the pre-engineered metal building.
Neighbors include Packaging Corporation of America, Tri-Cities Intermodal, Northwest Wine Services and the Tyson beef processing plant.
Future neighbors include the Rockwool USA insulation manufacturing plant taking shape nearby, along with SkyNRG’s plans for an aviation fuel manufacturing plant and Amazon Inc.’s plan for a $5 billion cluster of data centers.
Amazon has already contacted Century Pipe about placing orders, Century Pipe leaders said.
Making pipe
The company receives resin by rail, chiefly from the south. It is loaded into holding tanks that feed into a mixing system where it is blended into the right mix of resin and color to produce the signature black color.
The resin is piped to the manufacturing floor, where it is pressed by nozzles that configure it to the correct diameter.
HDPE is black in part to protect pipe from UV rays, contributing to its reported 100-year lifespan.
The plant has room for five production lines, though it is equipped with three to start. To start, it will produce the most in-demand pipe sizes: 2-12 inches, 8-24 inches and 18-36 inches. Future lines will allow it to produce larger, specialized pipe.
Resin passes through the nozzle into an extruder that sends it through a series of water-cooled chambers.
As water heats up, it falls into collection trenches and passes through a chiller before it is recycled back to the cooling system.
The plant consumes almost no water in production beyond what evaporates during the process. Employees will use more water in the restrooms and break room than the production system will lose to evaporation, Eeles said.
The finished product will generally ship out via rail. The plan is served by a new spur off the Dodd Road Loop that serves the area.
Market for pipe
Century Pipe sells pipe nationally through its distributors. But realistically, the Burbank plant will support an area about 500 to 1,000 miles from Eastern Washington. Beyond that, it loses its competitive edge to rival plants in other regions.
HDPE is widely used in a variety of settings, including municipal water and sewer systems, data centers, commercial and residential buildings and industrial facilities.
The Burbank plant will produce nearly one rail car’s worth of pipe per day, or about 175,000 pounds to start.
The company does not sell directly to customers to avoid competing with distributors.
Recruited laid off workers
Century Pipe hired its first round of workers at four hiring events, including one with the WorkSource office in Kennewick.
It focused heavily on workers who were laid off when PCA laid off up to 200 workers when it idled one of its lines at Wallula in February, and from Refresco Beverages US Inc. as it lays off nearly 60 technicians, machine operators, forklift drivers and other workers as it closes its Walla Walla plant.
Collin said the hiring team was pleased to find so many people with experience working in manufacturing to chose from.
“We’re going to have to turn away people we would have gobbled up,” he said.
The new Century Pipe facility is at 1181 Railex Road, in the Port of Walla Walla’s industrial business park that overlooks the spot where the Columbia River squeezes through Wallula Gap.
Manufacturing jobs
Washington state has set a goal of doubling Washington manufacturing jobs by 2031.
Century Pipe, however, did not receive economic incentives from the state, according to a Department of Commerce spokeswoman.
Washington Employment Security said nearly 8,000 Washington manufacturers employ nearly 270,000 employees statewide and account for more than 7.6% of all jobs in the state in post celebrating Manufacturing Day post in late 2025.