Eco Material Technologies, a North American producer, marketer and distributor of ash-based SCMs (Supplementary Cementitious Materials) and “Green Cement” products, has opened a new Lakeview Plant in southern Oregon, its “first sustainably built manufacturing hub” in the Pacific Northwest.
Rail-served by Nexxt Rail LLC subsidiary Goose Lake Railway, Eco’s Lakeview Plant is engineered to produce up to 300,000 tons of low‑carbon cement replacements annually. “By replacing 25% to 100% of traditional Portland cement in concrete mixes with Eco Material’s advanced SCMs and proprietary green cement blends, producers can reduce the carbon footprint of the cement portion of their concrete by up to 80%—the component responsible for the majority of embodied CO₂ in typical concrete formulations,” the company said. “The Lakeview Plant is expected to create 30 permanent jobs, including skilled manufacturing roles and logistics positions in a historically underserved region. Approximately 75% of shipments will be distributed by rail using existing infrastructure.”
The facility rollout “continues Eco Material Technologies’ national expansion, including a recently opened terminal in Queens, N.Y., supplying 50,000 tons of harvested fly ash annually to the New York City metro market,” the company noted. “With the Lakeview Plant coming online,we’re on track to deliver more than 10 million tons of environmentally beneficial materials per year across 40 metro areas in North America.”
“Opening of the Lakeview Plant demonstrates our commitment to sustainable innovation and marks a significant step forward in expanding access to domestically produced, low-carbon cement alternatives,” said Eco Material Technologies CEO Grant Quasha.
Eco Material Technologies describes itself as “an environmentally focused, near-zero carbon cement producer in the United States. SCMs are the most impactful, environmentally friendly alternative materials to Portland cement that significantly reduce the CO₂ footprint and improve the performance and longevity of cement’s end-product, concrete. Coal ash and natural pozzolans are used to replace a portion of carbon intensive Portland cement in concrete and can be further upgraded to higher-performance Green Cement products. The company also supplies services to electric utilities related to management of coal ash and other coal combustion products, and recycles more than 10 million tons per year of material into beneficial use, reducing emissions and avoiding landfilling of material.”
Class III Goose Lake Railway LLC (GOOS) has since September 2017 been managed and operated by parent company Nexxt Rail, LLC through a contractual agreement with railroad owner Lake County, Ore. GOOS runs 55 miles from Lakeview, Ore., to Alturas, Calif., and an additional 50 miles to Perez, Calif., where it connects with Union Pacific’s Black Butte Subdivision main line to Klamath Falls, Ore. Up to two trains operate weekly.
