Our organization formed in 2023, when heavy industry was illegitimately allowed to store polluting toxic metal piles at the Bellingham Waterfront without vetting, threatening public health and the Salish Sea. We organized to demand a clean, accessible waterfront and an economy that was not dangerous to the community.
The Port of Bellingham signed a 25-year lease that allowed a towering metal mountain to grow on the shoreline, just feet from the developing community-focused Waterfront. The result was constant noise, toxic runoff risks, and an unacceptable disruption to Bellingham's accepted vision.
This industrial encroachment did not happen in a vacuum. Decisions made by our local representatives paved the way for the ABC metal pile.
Port Commissioners Michael Shepard, Ken Bell, and Bobby Briscoe were instrumental in executing and defending the lease agreements that prioritized heavy industrial use over the wellbeing of Bellingham residents and quality of life.
Bellingham and Whatcom County residents rallied together. Tens of thousands of petitions were signed voicing deep concern against water, air, and noise pollution caused by the Waterfront Metal Piles, and the potential building of a toxic Metal Shredder in Alderwood.
When toxic water pollution was found by the State Department of Ecology, polluting the protected Salish Sea, and air pollution was poisoning the Waterfront where children played, the Port was forced to cancel ABC’s 25-year lease. This followed months of the Port and ABC claiming there was no pollution nor danger to the community or its economy.
With tens of thousands of petition signatures in hand and hundreds of yard signs lining the streets of Bellingham, ABC Recycling recognized that their waste from afar was not going to be accepted by what they thought was a "sleepy little town" over the border.
With the successful cancellation of the Waterfront toxic metal piles and the massive pushback from residents, ABC withdrew their permit application for the toxic shredder within the residential neighborhood of Alderwood.