The commodity will be removed from vessels with a crane and conveyor belts and then trucked a few miles to Clearwater Paper's Lewiston site, under an agreement approved by Port of Lewiston commissioners at a Tuesday meeting.

"I'm glad they looked at us and were able to figure something out," said Port Commission President Mike Thomason.

The deal is significant for the port and not just because it's expected to generate at least $72,000 annually. Use of its dock has been intermittent since the spring of 2015, when ocean-going container carriers stopped regularly calling on the Port of Portland, the transfer point for almost all the cargo that leaves Lewiston by water.

The length of the dock was more than doubled to 270 feet in 2013 with $2.8 million in port and federal dollars in anticipation of increased activity that has yet to materialize.

Clearwater Paper will pay $1,500 for the first four barges each month, and $1,750 for additional barges, with the volume expected to be between four and six per month, said Port Manager David Doeringsfeld.

The barges will start arriving this spring after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finishes major maintenance and upgrades that will force closures at the locks of the eight dams between Lewiston and Portland from Monday through March 20.

The sawdust will be shipped from Columbia City, Ore., downriver from Portland, and will go into pulp at Clearwater Paper that's made into tissue and paperboard, said Matt Van Vleet, a spokesman for the company.

The sawdust currently is handled by a third-party contractor at the Port of Wilma, just west of Clarkston, where Clearwater Paper also has a log-chipping operation.

Moving the sawdust to the Port of Lewiston brings the process in-house, Van Vleet said. "It's a cost-savings measure."