Port Gamble: A Small Town with a Big History. When the Pope and Talbot paper mill finally closed down in Port Gamble, the oldest company town in the country, the bay was filled with sawdust, wood chips and derelict debris. A massive cleanup process restored the bay and the tribal clam and oyster beds. The town now has to make a choice about its future. Students Coutney Kjelland and Michael Hitchner delve into the history, cleanup and future of this historic town.

The Waterfront District: How the City of Bellingham Reclaimed its Contaminated Waterfront. When the the Georgia Pacific paper mill closed in Bellingham, Washington, the city faces a daunting challenge — how to clean up toxic mercury beading in the soil and reclaim a shoreline district contaminated by years of industrial use. By 2017, parts of the cite were cleaned up and plans for an expanded business district that could celebrate its industrial past, while bringing public access to the downtown shoreline ,were on their way to becoming reality. Students Frederica Kowley and Chris Johnson explored the cleanup site in their own backyard.

Skykomish Cleanup. When a small, mountain town finds pools of contaminated bunker oil under its now closed rail switching yard, the town undergoes massive upheaval. Yet, in the end, the cleanup allows the town to re-imagine its future by looking to its past. In 2013, students Ryan Hasert, Lauren Owens, Breena Greely, and Christoper Zemp headed to Skykomish to find out more.

Tribal Connections. When Washington’s Department of Ecology began cleaning up the legacy contamination from mill operations, the S’Klallam tribe wanted to be involved. In 2016, students Jesse Nicols and Sarah Mikkelborg explore the cleanup at Port Gamble Bay.

Padilla Bay: In 2015, student Aubrey Honeysett reports on the cleanup at Padilla Bay, in Anacortes, Washington, an example of Washington’s cleanup of the Puget Sound shoreline.

Georgia Pacific West Site: In 2016, students Kate Welch and Lauren Templeton explored the cleanup process in their own backyard — the Georgia Pacific West Site on the Bellingham, Washington waterfront. Together they searched through archives to find historic photos, interviewed old-time workers at the GP plant, and created a short film on the cleanup process. Bringing all these pieces together, they built a website for people to explore the issues.

The LeRoi Smelter and the Upper Columbia River Basin. In 2020, Nick Baca, Olivia Hobson, and Brenden Murphy explored the metal contamination and cleanup in eastern Washington.  See the Story Map they produced!

MTCA Cleanups of Bellingham Bay: Envisioning Public Participation and Land Use for Four Waterfront Sites. Public waterfront access around Bellingham Bay is in short supply – but cleanup action along the water has the potential to change that. In 2022, students Emma Bjornsrud, Jay Cassady, Olivia Palmer and River Starr explored the importance of public participation in the MTCA cleanup process at four different contaminated sites around Bellingham Bay and created a StoryMap. These sites currently are, or will become, public parks for the community to enjoy.

The Seafarer’s Park in Anacortes, WA. In this interactive experience, you can learn how a contaminated site transitioned to a public park. April Reed and Samantha Atripaldi brought together their science and journalism skills to produce this creative exploration of a clean-up site.