Bellingham Waterfront

Bellingham Waterfront

The Bellingham, Washington waterfront is dominated by the 137-acre (0.55 km2) site of Georgia Pacific's former pulp, chemical plant and tissue mill, the latter slated to cease operations in December 2007. Controversy surrounds the current efforts to redevelop the site, particularly the issue of the disposal of mercury-contaminated sediments and soils.

The property consists of two main portions: the plant site itself and the so-called Aerated Stabilization Basin (ASB), part of the plant's wastewater treatment system. The ASB is a large lagoon enclosed by an earthen breakwater built atop former tidelands across the Whatcom waterway from the plant site.

The waterfront has served as an industrial center since the late nineteenth century. In the areas currently slated for redevelopment, salmon canning gave way to pulp and paper production in the early twentieth century. In 1963 the Georgia Pacific company purchased the Puget Sound Pulp and Timber Company and operated a pulp mill on the central downtown waterfront until 2001. In 1965 G-P built a Chlor-Alkali facility that operated until 1999, and continues to operate a tissue mill on the site as of 2007. While the siting of an industrial and chemical operation on the waterfront fell increasingly out of favor over the years, the plant was a significant source of family-wage employment for residents of the city.

Portions of the waterfront are heavily contaminated due to the area's historical industrial uses. The environmental problems stem primarily from G-P's operation of the chlor-alkali plant to manufacture chlorine and other chemicals. The process released many tons of mercury into the Whatcom Creek waterway. Some areas of the upland portions of the site are also contaminated with significant concentrations of mercury. By contrast, the ASB—the only area scheduled for the removal of toxins—is clean.

Other areas of the waterfront are contaminated as a result of the historic use as a municipal waste landfill, which served as a disposal ground for the waste while creating additional dry land.

Read more about Bellingham Waterfront:  Redevelopment, Current Status