UMATILLA – The financially suffering Williams company no longer is the developer of the Wanapa Energy Project.

Paula Hall-Collins, spokeswoman for the Williams company in Tulsa, Okla., confirmed Thursday that Williams has handed over the development of the Wanapa project to Diamond Generating Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp., based in Los Angeles.

Amin Shakill, senior project development manager of Diamond, said Thursday that Diamond representatives met with Wanapa partners in Portland Wednesday to discuss the new development. Shakill said since the final agreement has not yet been signed, he preferred to wait to comment further on Diamond’s role in the project.

The proposed $600 million, 1,230 megawatt natural gas-fired Wanapa Energy Project is slated to be built in 2005 or 2006 on land owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

Besides Diamond and the Tribes, the other players in the project include the city of Hermiston and the Port of Umatilla, which are providing water to the project as well as the Eugene Water and Electric Board, which will provide energy marketing and development expertise.

The Williams company had planned to build the Wanapa project on its own. But since the Enron scandal, Williams has faced financial difficulties and layoffs. In fact, Collins said, she will no longer be working for Williams after next week.

Hermiston City Manager Ed Brookshier and Port of Umatilla Director Kim Puzey traveled with Tribal attorney J.D. Williams and others to Portland Wednesday to sign a preliminary partnership agreement with Diamond.

“All this means to us is that another developer is driving the project,” Puzey said. “It’s really a non-issue for us.”

The Williams company has been discussing ways to remove itself from the project for about six months, Williams said, but the Tribes and other partners did not want the project to die as a result.

“The project is still alive and moving forward,” Williams said.

The Tribes are looking forward to working with Diamond, Williams said, and he believes this might be an even better arrangement this time.

“Diamond is not an energy trading company, so they’ve avoided the problems of Enron,” Williams said. “They also are not a publicly traded company, so they’ve also avoided problems with the stock market.”

Williams said Diamond is an “experienced developer” of energy projects both in the United States and overseas.

“They are pretty solid,” Williams said. “We are pretty excited.”

He said the Tribes will hold an official signing agreement with Diamond members and representatives of the other participating partners later this month.

Plans for the Wanapa project still are in the early stages. Environmental studies on air, water, land and wildlife are underway, but no formal building plans have been developed.

Williams said Diamond is anxious to move forward with resuming work necessary under National Environmental Policy Act requirements. Those requirements include completion of comprehensive environmental studies and public comment periods.

Public meetings to discuss environmental and other issues should resume “all over Umatilla County … hopefully this spring,” Williams said.

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Reporter Carie L. Call can be reached at 1-800-522-0255 (ext. 1-304 after hours).