The approximately $20 million port proposed at Cates Landing near Tiptonville has been described by 8th District Congressman John Tanner as the most important economic development that could occur in the history of Northwest Tennessee during his lifetime. It has the capacity to spawn 3,000 direct jobs and 2,600 indirect jobs, according to a study commissioned by the state. Combined with the proposed new I-69 federal interstate through West Tennessee, the new infrastructure would conceivably create waves of economic development in Lake, Obion and Dyer Counties, and in fact throughout upper West Tennessee, arguably the most economically distressed of all Tennessee regions.

Over the years, numerous big companies have eyed the Cates Landing site as a preferred location for setting up operations—if only a port existed. Local officials have watched as companies such as Nucor Steel, Lallemand Yeast, Excalibur Mineral Corp., IPSCO Steel, ConAgra Foods and Grain Processing Corp. have explicitly stated their desire to develop on the site but had to take their investments, estimated by local officials at a combined $1 billion, elsewhere on America’s waterways.

Currently, local officials say at least four other big industrial tenants are poised to take the plunge at Cates Landing if federal approval of the project finally arrives. The outcome could be known by early this summer. Plans call for a minimum 1,000- to 2,000-acre industrial park adjacent to the port. (Cates Landing actually has nearly 5,000 adjacent acres available above the flood plain, a highly unusual and fortuitous port topography.) Lake County Commissioners recently approved condemnation of the first 350 acres upon project approval. Both the Tennessee Department of Conservation and the Corps of Engineers have signed off on the project from an environmental standpoint. Just about all that remains is federal funding.

Key to that effort will be Tanner’s efforts in Washington in a sluggish climate for budget expenditures. He’ll need wholehearted cooperation from Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Senate Majority Leader and presidential contender Bill Frist to arm-twist any lingering Washington obstructionists, perhaps including Kentucky lawmakers concerned about the competitive effects of a new Tennessee port on their state’s nearby existing ports. If approved, construction would take place in 2007 with the port opening by year’s end.

A February 2005 study by the agricultural economics department at the University of Tennessee indicates one new industry that would perfectly suit creation of the port and industrial park in soil-rich, farming-intensive upper West Tennessee. That industry wouldn’t just snap the area out of its economic doldrums, but would, in fact, jettison the region into the world of high tech. According to the report, the market for soybeans as a feedstock for bio-diesel is growing. As a fuel, bio-diesel has the potential to decrease air emissions, reduce reliance on foreign oil and help expand markets for U.S. farmers. The report analyzed the feasibility of producing bio-diesel in Tennessee and found that a bio-diesel facility located in Northwest Tennessee “could be served by local soybeans trucked from the surrounding area.” Area farmers within a 50-mile radius of Cates Landing, the report states, “could adequately supply a facility.”

One community development official intimately involved with the port project tells Business Tennessee a reputable, national investor with the financial wherewithal to make good on his word has already expressed a desire to build a bio-diesel plant on the Cates Landing property, pending approval of the port. With $1 billion in private investment already gone down the river, Tennessee can’t afford for its congressional delegation to fail to get the project’s funding approved this year.

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