Leery opponents to a proposed silicon smelter near Newport on the Idaho-Washington border are pleased that authorities have halted a contract agreement with the applicant, but say they’re not finished fighting the controversial project.

“It’s not over until it’s over but this is a big step in the right direction,” Chris Bishop of Citizens Against Newport Silicone Smelter (CANSS) said Thursday.

The Pend Oreille County Public Utility District earlier this month informed smelter applicant PacWest Silicon it was terminating its agreement with the Canadian firm effective Jan. 11.

“It has been well over six months since the (PUD) has received any communication or direction from you or your team regarding the PacWest Silicon LLC application for utility service,” the utility said in a letter to PacWest Silicon CEO Jayson Tymko.

“The (PUD), as a nonprofit entity, generally closes out work orders, requests or service, and contracts that are no longer active at the end of the year,” the letter continued.

The letter included a check for $315,000 which reflects the remaining amounts from deposits made by PacWest to the PUD. PacWest had paid the utility $500,000 for engineering services related to the project.

While advising PacWest of its intent to terminate the agreement, the PUD left the door open for the project to proceed at a later date.

“The (PUD) welcomes a future request from your company to become a customer of the District when you and your team are ready,” the letter said.

Since plans for the proposed silicon smelter were announced four years ago, there has been fierce opposition from both sides of the state line.

Opponents say the “dirty” industry would devastate the region.

“This energy-intensive, coal-burning smelter will emit hundreds to thousands of tons of greenhouse gases and other coal toxins annually,” opponents charged in a newsletter. “The carbon footprint will be tremendous.”

It continued: “The Pend Oreille River Valley, the Little Spokane watershed and North Idaho will be blanketed with toxic emissions. This smelter will be located within one-to-two miles of eight Newport schools, athletic fields, parks, the Newport Hospital, and downtown Newport.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee voiced concern and frustration over the project in a letter to Tymko last October.

“I take seriously the community opposition to your proposed silicon smelter project in Pend Oreille County,” the governor wrote.

“As opposition grows, it appears PacWest is communicating less with the community, tribal and local governments and state regulators.”

Phyliss Kardos, co-chair of Responsible Growth * NE Washington, a group leading the charge against the smelter, said the action by the Pend Oreille County PUD will not alleviate opposition.

“What this has done is given us more time,” Kardos said. “Those of us who are opposed—and there are thousands of us—will continue to fight.”

Kardos said PacWest has failed to follow through on any of its commitments dating back to the winter of 2015 when the proposal first surfaced.

“They never requested any permitting or had any desire to go through the permitting process with the (Washington) Department of Ecology,” she said.

Asked if she believed PacWest would continue to pursue its plans for the smelter, Kardos said, “the only thing we have to go by is what their CEO (Tymko) said. And he said they’re not giving up.”

A call to PacWest Silicon for comment was not returned.