Photography
Penumbra of Industry
As the day winds to an end, people are still working to either load or unload this ship and keep our global supply chain in motion. Their efforts reflect from a round window of the “four-story” Public Observation Tower “overlooking Sitcum Waterway near the Port's Administration Building” (Oldham, 2008). The tower was dedicated to the “citizens of Pierce County” in November of 1988 to honor the port’s official founding on November 5, 1918 (Public Access, n.d.). The Observation Tower is a safe place to observe the goings on of the port 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The tower allows visitors to observe the port without disrupting nature or business. The tower is a solution to the lack of accessibility and transparency inherent to the nature of the business at the port. It works as a living history monument to the place where it stands while allowing a safe vantage point from which to witness the splendor of the port.
As a public port district, the Port facilities were, and are, public property, and the nearly non-stop activity of huge cranes lifting containers high into the air and giant ships gliding slowly down the waterways fascinates many members of the public. But the constant movement of cranes, trains, and equipment of all kinds make the docks unsafe for visitors to roam at will. With the Port's 70th anniversary approaching, the five elected Port Commissioners -- Robert G. Earley, Jack A. Fabulich, John McCarthy, Patrick O'Malley, and Ned Shera -- decided to recognize the citizens who established and supported the Port by creating a safe viewing location at the center of the Port's operations (Oldham, 2008).
Maintenance and public knowledge of this access point are vital to its continued use. The tower, in particular, needs a higher public profile. Many Tacomans have yet to learn that it is there and feel distant from the port's activities.
The Port of Tacoma is working “to phase out emissions from seaport-related activities by 2050 or sooner, in partnership with the Northwest Seaport Alliance” (Environment, n.d.). This area is littered with seals and ducks when the boats are gone. For decades, advancements in industry have come at the expense of the environment. We are currently in a situation where sustainability is expected. Continuing to foster these efforts is vital to broader world vitality. We must continually work to reassess what sustainability means as we approach previous goals. The goal is to far surpass anything thought of as possible when an initial sustainability goal was set. Continuing to set new metrics for sustainability, study the impacts of global trade, and work toward establishing circular, regenerative economies to support sustainable practices in the city itself will advance the sustainability of the port as a whole (Akkucuk & Ulas, 2019; Arora et al., 2023; Cooper, 2020; Kirchherr et al., 2018; Kurita et al., 2023; Neves & Marques, 2022; Solnit & Young-Lutunatabua, 2023). The hope is that the continual development of the Blair Waterway will come hand-in-hand with the regeneration of the environment and the economy (Abel, Aug 23, 2018 Updated Oct 4 2022; Bunce & Desfor, 2007; Solnit & Young-Lutunatabua, 2023; The White House, 2022). Ethical interactions in this environment promote the well-being of aquatic animals and the quality of life for everything and everyone else.
References
Abel, K. (Aug 23, 2018 Updated Oct 4 2022). NWSA, Army Corps Take First Step Toward Deepening Tacoma Harbor. South Sound Business. https://www.southsoundbiz.com/news/nwsa-army-corps-take-first-step-toward-deepening-tacoma-harbor/article_27cd797d-762a-5925-97a9-f6a7bdfac3c9.html
Environment. (n.d.). Port of Tacoma. Retrieved May 12, 2024, from https://www.portoftacoma.com/environment
Oldham, K. (2008). Port of Tacoma dedicates its Public Observation Tower on November 21, 1988. In HistoryLink.org (p. HistoryLink.org Essay 8816). HistoryLink.org. https://www.historylink.org/File/8816
Public Access. (n.d.). Port of Tacoma. Retrieved May 12, 2024, from https://www.portoftacoma.com/community/public-access
The White House. (2022). FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Additional Infrastructure Funding for Ports and Waterways. The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/29/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-additional-infrastructure-funding-for-ports-and-waterways/
The Wake of Todd Yards
The sun setting behind the roots of a toppled tree on the beach. Tracks run from the beach into the water. From historic photos, what looks like train tracks here likely assisted with launching ships from this location (Port of Tacoma, 2021). Now a part of the Earley Business Center, this beach was vital to the shipbuilding efforts of Todd Shipyards Corporation in World War I and World War II (Port of Tacoma, 2021). Earley Business Center has more than the haunting remnants of shipbuilding activities—the soil contains metals, asbestos, solvents, and petroleum in various forms (including gasoline). Metals, solvents, and varied petroleum contaminants are also present in the groundwater at the business park (Southwest Regional Office, 2013). The contamination in the tide flats has been a hard-fought battle, but recent efforts bearing fruit inspire confidence that this site could once again positively exist in its ecological landscape (City of Tacoma, 2022; Kocher, 2024). This situation exists because of the constant push and pull of capitalism meeting the demands of war.
Currently, contamination impacts the water quality in the surrounding area and makes the beach itself unsuitable for leisure use, detracting from the overall level of access for people. The contamination is more likely to directly impact creatures like the seals that visit the beach than humans, as not many people know of its existence. There is currently no work plan for how to remediate this site, as it has not yet been 180 days from the submittal of the amended agreed order on the project, Tacoma Port Early Business Center - AO DE 9553 (Smith et al., 2023; Southwest Regional Office, 2013). They are foregoing public comment on the project and reserve the right to combine notices. The best course of action to take for this site will be revealed after environmental testing is conducted.
The business center is a maritime-centric business incubator the port manages (Port of Tacoma, 2021). Though the temporary use should not logically further the negative impacts on the site, Trident has experienced two ship fires—one required nearby communities to shelter in place, and the other resulted in a 20-30 gallon oil spill with a corresponding $25,000 fine (The Maritime Executive, 2023). The interim use of the site provides income for people through the variety of companies located there, which positively impacts the community and turns a negative into an opportunity. On the other hand, the continued contamination of the site and surrounding community implies that there may not be an ideal path toward remediation that retains jobs and values our reciprocal ecologies. The remediation process will not be easy, but doing more to encourage and support these businesses to follow the regulations already in place would do a lot to bolster confidence in the concept of a healthy balance.
References
City of Tacoma. (2022). Thea Foss Waterway Cleanup. City of Tacoma. https://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_departments/environmentalservices/surface_water/thea_foss_waterway_cleanup
Kocher, J. (2024, April 12). Melanie’s Park opens on Thea Foss Waterway with elaborate play areas and scenic views. Metro Parks Tacoma. https://www.metroparkstacoma.org/melanies-park-opens/
Port of Tacoma. (2021, May 27). Tacoma Tideflats’ important role in World War II shipbuilding. Port of Tacoma. https://www.portoftacoma.com/news/tacoma-tideflats-important-role-world-war-ii-shipbuilding
Southwest Regional Office. (2013). Tacoma Port Earley Business Center. Washington State Department of Ecology. https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/cleanupsearch/site/2395
The Maritime Executive. (2023, April 9). Trident Seafoods Factory Trawler Catches Fire in Tacoma. The Maritime Executive. https://maritime-executive.com/article/trident-seafoods-factory-trawler-catches-fire-in-tacoma
Purgatory
A tire sticking out of the sand in front of the East 11th Street Bridge. If you ask their security guard, the tire and this beach are considered property of WestRock, a defunct paper mill, but are actually just outside of their parcel on Pierce County Parcel Viewer. The bridge was constructed in 1912, and the viaduct followed at some point in the 1930s. The bridge was originally a vertical lift bridge, like the Murray Morgan Bridge, with a trolley line before being “converted to a fixed span in 1979” (Sailor, 2022). The paper mill was built in 1928 by the Union Bag Company, who never saw it in operation before its sale to St. Regis Paper Company. Under St. Regis, the mill was fully operational by 1935. St. Regis sold the mill to Champion Paper in 1984, who sold it to Simpson Paper Company in 1985. For 29 years, Simpson operated the mill, “the ‘Aroma of Tacoma’ largely disappeared, the shoreline was rehabilitated, and a serious commitment to environmental stewardship took hold in the mill” (Whitt, 2023). Simpson sold off all of its other mills except Tacoma before finally selling the Tacoma mill in 2014 to RockTenn Paper for $368 million. RockTenn paper merged with MeadWestvaco to become WestRock in 2015 (Cockrell, 2023; Whitt, 2023).
WestRock has been shutting down underperforming mills around the country, which it claims is “proactively optimizing our footprint by closing less efficient facilities and consolidating production and larger plants” (People, 2023). The Tacoma mill was too expensive to maintain and operate to the standards necessary to avoid a more prevalent “Tacoma Aroma.” The closure of the mill and relocation of its work results in the elimination of 400 jobs, the pulp produced at the Tacoma mill, bleached kraft paper production at WestRock, and a “$25 million annual revenue loss” for Tacoma Public Utilities (People, 2023; Tacoma Public Utilities, 2023). Only three bleached kraft paper mills remain, and the West has a definitive product shortage. This mill was the fourth shutdown by WestRock since 2020 (People, 2023). WestRock has since closed a packaging plant in Seattle. Both closures come after opening a new plant in Longview that staffs 1,000 people. Together, the Tacoma mill and Seattle plant staffed 487 people (Gallup, 2024). The mill accounted for about one-third of the daily drinking water usage in the city, and this change in usage will result in rate hikes for Tacomans (Tacoma Public Utilities, 2023). The mill loss “is the biggest hit TPU has taken in its 130-year history” (Tacoma Weekly, 2023).
The site is not precisely dormant—security was happy to escort me off the beach as I lingered around attempting to research its history—but the mill is about to “enter a new phase of growth” (Cockrell, 2023). Plans change, and that is unavoidable. No one can say if RockTenn purchased the mill from Simpson with the intent of closing it, but that does appear to be a pattern under WestRock’s management. The closure will potentially cost WestRock more than $345 million, accounting for the potential income from the sale of the land the mill sits on, and that was more cost-efficient than getting the mill up to efficiency and ecological standards. The mill was fined $52,000 for violating its air-quality permit in December 2022 when “the WestRock site failed a performance test on April 17, 2022, when it insufficiently reduced hazardous air pollutants in the mill’s wastewater streams” (Cockrell, 2023). They passed a follow-up test on May 11th and were allowed to settle for a $32,000 fine and a performance study. The closure announcement was only one month later (Cockrell, 2023).
The site has a ton of potential with the way it is situated. The first step of any reconfiguration is to remediate the site. Communities for a Healthy Bay pointed out the opportunity presented by the mill's closure to align “with Tacoma’s newly adopted Green Economy strategy” in its decommissioning, remediation, and eventual reconfiguration (Cockrell, 2023; RM Donahue Consulting, 2023). Many believe that the mill site could serve as a “stepping stone” to reimagined economies and ecologies in the area. The Port of Tacoma is obviously interested in what comes next for the site. Eric Johnson, the port's executive director, suggested the mill site become “a high-quality industrial manufacturing campus… that dives into some of the some emerging technologies in the clean economy. Hydrogen, wind, offshore wind power” (Cockrell, 2023). It is unclear if the site would suit those uses, but the potential is endless. “Ryan Spence, director of the Manufacturing Industrial Council,” invoked their dedication to strategy around “manufacturing, industrial and maritime uses, and the Tideflats and in South Tacoma,” noting the “state initiative to double manufacturing over the next decade” and the opportunity for green economic development to take place with “accessible living wage” manufacturing jobs at the mill site (Cockrell, 2023).
The bridge was closed ten years ago, in 2014. However, the demolition process of the viaduct it connected to only began after it began raining concrete chunks and was “declared an emergency” in February of 2022 (City of Tacoma, n.d.-b). When the East 11th Street bridge and Viaduct were slated to be demolished, they put a protective catchment barrier over the tribal boat launch across the water from this beach and that is the only mention I see of it anywhere outside of some fishing and paddle board participatory mapping efforts (Boat Launch on Puyallup River, n.d., Stewart St. Launch, n.d.; City of Tacoma, n.d.-b; Donovan, 2022; Sailor, 2022). The 100 feet of the remaining viaduct are over this boat launch. The viaduct ran from this bridge to the Port of Tacoma office and had space for employee parking underneath. It cost $7 million to demolish with the port and the city each paying for half. The metal and concrete of the viaduct were recycled. The main water supply to the port is attached to the bridge, which makes its demolition more complicated than otherwise. The plan, as it stands, is to build a new bridge and a taller viaduct at about 60’ tall versus the 25’ tall it was before (Sailor, 2022).
Before the situation at the bridge became quite so dire, the city conducted a corridor study considering the needs of emergency responders, evacuation routes, general traffic and connectivity, freight and goods, the port, the tribe, bicyclists and pedestrians, and utility concerns (City of Tacoma, n.d.-a). The closure of this bridge resulted in trucks, traffic, and emergency vehicles having to take a two-mile detour to the Lincoln Avenue Bridge 4,000 feet south to reach the port. On my way to the bridge, I was stuck behind a large pack of bicyclists, so that concern appeared to be more founded than I would have initially assumed. With most of the bridges in the city in poor condition, it is hard to understand what that will eventually mean for the city's urban fabric. No funding is currently allocated for a new bridge, according to the city’s website on its demolition (City of Tacoma, n.d.-b). The demolition of the viaduct gave the port back around 5 acres of space that they could not use while the old viaduct was in place (Donovan, 2022).
While I was trespassing on this beach, a man backed his pickup truck down the boat launch and unloaded small grocery bags of trash into the river. This spot, in particular, is an exciting culmination of moving parts. It will likely be encapsulated into the WestRock Mill redevelopment, but as things stand, it is tried to almost every entity in the port and belongs to none. This ambiguity leads to neglect. Establishing a straightforward narrative around the beach would elevate its care. How many workarounds can be instituted while the city searches for funds? How does something like this bridge closure impact costs for businesses on the west side, now separated from the port, like the WestRock mill? These bridges have a limited lifespan, and plans should be made for their inevitable replacement before they begin deteriorating and must be replaced.
References
Boat Launch on Puyallup River. (n.d.). Bloodydecks. Retrieved May 19, 2024, from https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/boat-launch-on-puyallup-river.698277/
City of Tacoma. (n.d.-a). East 11th Street Bridge Corridor Study. City of Tacoma. Retrieved May 19, 2024, from https://cityoftacoma.org/government/city_departments/public_works/engineering/capital_projects/east_11th_street_bridge_corridor_study
City of Tacoma. (n.d.-b). East 11th Street Bridge demolition. City of Tacoma. Retrieved May 11, 2024, from https://www.cityoftacoma.org/government/city_departments/public_works/engineering/capital_projects/east_11th_street_bridge_demolition
Cockrell, D. (2023, August 26). WestRock mill closure: What happens next for the workforce and site potential? The News Tribune. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article278576154.html
Donovan, L. (2022, June 30). Tacoma project to remove East 11th Street viaduct nears completion. KING. https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/tacoma/tacoma-east-11th-viaduct-removal/281-e3b5b168-f505-4e83-a430-b3531ef396ad
Gallup, L. (2024, January 25). Another WestRock facility in Washington is closing, laying off 87. Northwest Public Broadcasting. https://www.nwpb.org/2024/01/25/another-westrock-facility-in-washington-is-closing-laying-off-87/
People, O. (2023, August 10). WestRock retires Tacoma mill and removes 510,000 tons per year of linerboard, kraft bag paper and pulp. Fastmarkets. https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/westrock-retires-tacoma-mill-and-removes-510000-tpy-of-linerboard-kraft-bag-paper-pulp/
Sailor, C. (2022, May 7). Historic Tacoma elevated roadway being demolished. “It became a safety hazard.” The News Tribune. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article261123637.html
Stewart St. Launch. (n.d.). Paddling. https://paddling.com/paddle/locations/stewart-st-launch
Tacoma Public Utilities. (2023, November 2). WestRock Closure FAQ. Tacoma Public Utilities. https://www.mytpu.org/payment-billing/rate-information/westrock-closure-faq/
Tacoma Weekly. (2023, August 11). Economic wake-up call with mill closure. Tacoma Weekly. https://tacomaweekly.com/economic-wakeup-call-with-mill-closure-p5842-117.htm
Whitt, C. (2023, September 21). A Longtime Employee Says Goodbye to Tacoma’s Iconic Paper Mill. Seattle Met. https://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2023/09/tacoma-paper-mill-closure-essay
