I never had a big axe to
grind against GP, but some other folks did, or at least a sense of
humor. Back in my college days (mid 1970s), Fairhaven College (a
branch of
WWU) named it's newsletter "The Tuna Gas News." Sort of a spoof
on GP's smell.
In later years of pulp mill operation, the smell was less
evident.
When
I was still in high school, I lived in Pullman, WA. while my
sister was attending Fairhaven College. In 1971 there was a test
of a nuclear warhead under Amchitka Island in the Aleutian Islands off
of Alaska. Some folks around Fairhaven College worried that the
Amchitka blast might set off earthquakes along fault lines all down the
coast. It might crack GP's chlorine plant sitting in the middle
of Bellingham.
Well, that "end of the world" scenario didn't happen.
When
I lived in the dorms at Fairhaven (late 1970s) there was a dorm
called The Bridge Project. It was folks past retirement age going
back to college. One bridger used to tell interesting stories
about driving a fuel truck into GP.
Hog fuel , as it was called.
Burning
old bark and wood waste to supplement the plant's steam
supply. He would say that after his load got dumped into the
hopper, it would all be burned up before his truck left the yard.
Impressive.
Sitting
in Viking Commons Dining hall, I would watch as the smoke from
the mill turned darker all of a sudden. "Must be another load of
hog fuel."
Then I heard an urban legend that the log chipper blade had so much
inertia that it would keep spinning on it's axis for several hours
after they turned it off. Maybe it was over a day. I forgot.
While I never worked at GP, the mill was a source of interesting goings
on.
In
Spokane, WA. I visited an old
heating plant called Steam
Plant Square. As of 2005, it made interesting decor for a
restaurant.
|
Why
steam is still rising from the old GP site
Could
Encogen provide a heating district for the new waterfront development?
What
comes next on the central waterfront?
Planning
waterfront in a vacuum
Population
growth, power cost contributed to GP's demise
My
memories of the mill, but I never worked there
Chipper blade. Make it a
sculpture?
Imploding
old GP kiln towers
All
my
blog entries on Bellingham Waterfront |
