WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON, US — The Port of Walla Walla in Washington state has approved a lease agreement with Columbia Rail to use a spur rail line and surrounding area at the port’s Wallula Shipping Terminal for delivering grain to the nearby Northwest Grain Growers (NWGG) terminal.

After arriving at the NWGG’s Wallula Junction storage site on the Columbia River, the grain would then be loaded onto barges bound for Portland, Oregon, US, and Vancouver, Washington.

NWGG was the original tenant of the lease from 1997 to 2017. After the lease ended, NWGG used trucks to transport grain to the storage facility in Wallula. Columbia Rail’s lease begins May 1 and ends Dec. 31, 2026. The lease can be extended annually for up to nine years.

Columbia Rail is a Walla Walla, Washington-based company that provides short line rail service covering 166 miles (267 km) in eastern Washington and Oregon. 

Headquartered in Walla Walla, NWGG operates 35 grain storage facilities, including four river facilities, three terminals and 28 country elevators, according to Sosland Publishing Co.’s 2025 Grain & Milling Annual. With 46.314 million bushels of licensed grain storage, it is the 38th largest grain storage company in North America.