Save the Waterfront - Bellingham, Save the Waterfront

Bellingham and Save The Waterfront supports the ILWU, Labor and the 18 members who work at the
Port of Bellingham Waterfront

South Hill Neighborhood

Thousands of Residents

New! Daily Updates are Here

With so much happening, we want you to know the moment we do. Updates are now here. Keep the link handy! Click Here>>

No longer call 911

Our concerns have been heard by the City. They have created a new reporting module at See, Click, Fix.
Click New Request, at the bottom right. Choose YOUR location, then scroll down to Planning and Building services. Choose “NOISE COMPLAINT”.

Learn more about ABC's employment in our community

ABC Recycling and the Port continue to quote that 60 ILWU Longshoremen load the ship. Our observations say different, and we have asked for confirmation. We support the ILWU, but is it about ‘local jobs’ when the employee travels from Olympia, or Tacoma or Seattle to load the ship for 10 days and then goes home?

Metal Shredder near Bellingham?

ABC Recycling has purchased 20 acres near Birchwood neighborhood. They plan to build a metal shredder on the site, possibly releasing heavy metals and VOC’s in the air near where thousands live, and schools are close by. Find out more here.

Our Petition signatures have grown to over 400.
Sign through the menu above!

On September 19th, Port Commissioner Bell called for his supporters to come to a Neighborhood Association meeting 'en mass'.
Update: Thankfully no one due to his request came to the meeting.

Should the noise stop before 3am?

Is this Heavy Industrial?

The sound is not temporary. It comes from a 25 year project of storing and shipping metal scrap from Canada

We are working to mitigate the effects of noise, light, air, and water pollution caused by the Metal Pile Storage. Our efforts now extend to the possible Metal Shredder on Marine Dr.
Land Use attorney’s are required to do this work, as we must stray through the complexities of County and City Regulations. Please donate if you can.

Your voice can be heard by the City Council and the Port of Bellingham. Our petition asks for very important but easily attainable action to reduce the effects the metal pile has on our community.

Please digitally sign the petition here.

Want to know more?

Thank you to the 200 residents who joined us for the Metal Shredder Meeting on September 6th. The video is available here.

We now have information about the road route the Metal Shredder trucks will take to get to the Metal Pile at the Waterfront for storage.

The Waterfront Sub-area plan calls for future proof jobs at the Log Pond on the Bellingham Waterfront...Not a metal pile.

We have found that the Land Use allowance for the Metal Pile at the Waterfront is incorrect and allows for pollution and noise that is unsustainable for our community.

We are working with the Mayor of Bellingham and Bellingham City Council to correct the Land Use that designates the metal storage as a ‘barge loading facility’, allowing work to occur until 3am, and leave the metal piles open to the air creating dust plumes over town and the Bellingham Bay.

The Metal Pile at the Waterfront grows daily

We have hired a land use law firm to help work with the County. Please donate if you can. All donations go directly to their needed expertise

The Waterfront Plan calls for future proof jobs...not metal piles

This is an Alert If residents do not write city leadership, speak up to friends and neighbors, and get involved to strongly oppose the Metal Pile, and the Metal Shredder, the up and coming town of Bellingham may become the industrial waste hub of British Columbia.

Our work has required the expertise of attorneys. Our funds grow low for future work the Land Use Law Firm. Please donate any amount you are able>>

Letter from Wally, The Waterfront
Hello,
I am the Bellingham Waterfront. Call me Wally. Since last summer, I have had a wound on my South side. It grows and shrinks. It emits dust, and noise throughout the day and night. I can’t sleep, and I’m worried for my Eel Grass friends in their beds.

Since GP left, over 20 years ago, I have been mostly alone and more recently I have been cleaned up. It feels so good! I’ve heard whispers that there is an amazing plan to develop me into a world class Waterfront with parks, and hotels, and restaurants, and housing for Working Class and Low Income folks. Sounds amazing!

This wound though worries me. Will all that is planned be possible? I know I am broken up into distinctly important parts, but just as your body relies on your organs to be separate, they also work together. Parks, and housing, and office, and restaurants, and light industry and maritime trades, as was promised in the Plan, all seem to work well and allow me to grow and thrive.

The wound though, does not. It feels dirty and although I appreciate the help of those who move the metal to clean me up, the metal just keeps coming. I hear it will grow, for maybe 20 years. I don’t know where the metal comes from, although I hear the dust is not toxic. Phew! And I hear a few are benefiting, but the company is far away and they hurt me to help it.

And guess what! It seems that they don’t even have the right to be doing this to me! Sorry. I know I’m supposed to be grateful for the beautiful development, but the wound hurts, and I’m afraid it might make the whole plan suffer or even fail!

Those who plan land like mine. They made rules to make sure our land helps our whole community, not just a few. They say its called zooming. Oh, no, um, Zoning!

The zoning says that a wound like mine must be protected by a building, and the wound can only be worked on during the day. Wouldn’t that be grand? A bandaid to secure my wound and keep it from festering out into the rest of my beautiful Waterfront?

But an important group, (they’re all important!) says that the wound is a maritime activity. I thought maritime was boats, and fish, and Eel Grass and stuff. They said that millions of parts of rusted old ferrous metal is the same as rocks from the soil, or trees from the roots, or grain from the stalks. I don’t agree.

Can you help me? I am young and growing up, and kinda stuck here on the coolest most beautiful part of Bellingham (humble?). I’m worried, and sad but need your help. I don’t know how, but I’m sure you do with your big brains and stuff. And thank you. My friend, Downtown, does too. She’s hurting, and maybe if you make the right decisions, she and I can support one another and we can all thrive.

Our Petition signatures have grown to over 400. Sign through the menu above!

On September 19th, Port Commissioner Bell called for his supporters to come to a Neighborhood Association meeting 'en mass'.Update: Thankfully no one due to his request came to the meeting.