Small-town America's Green Lifeline
These small towns were dying. Then alternative power reenergized them.
In the heart of Washington state's logging country, where it's a treasured pastime to curse the endangered spotted owl, you'll find one of the greenest paper mills around. Tucked along the rainy coastline, Grays Harbor Paper produces some of the country's only 100 percent recycled paper in a plant powered entirely by biomass fuel derived from logging waste.
It wasn't always like this. The mill, formerly owned by itt Rayonier and International Paper, shut down in 1992, putting more than 600 people from nearby Hoquiam and Aberdeen out of work. "Families were breaking up and moving out," says Bill Quigg, a Hoquiam native who bought the mill in 1993. "There were suicides. It was really a hard time." Today, Grays Harbor Paper employs more than 200 people and Hoquiam is home to one of the nation's largest biodiesel plants.
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Like other areas that have been shut out of the postindustrial economy, Grays Harbor turned to renewable energy not for feel-good reasons but financial ones. "Politically I am on the right side of Genghis Khan," says Quigg. "I'm not a lefty wacko." Nevertheless, "We make the greenest products, and we make them with the greenest fuel," he enthusiastically boasts. "Nobody else does that. We have the audacity to think we can change the market. If you buy local and smarter, you save a tremendous amount of fossil fuel."
Whether Quigg's strategy will work in the long run remains to be seen. The mill runs on a tight budget; its Harbor 100 recycled paper represents a mere 2 percent of sales. Two years ago, the city of Seattle contracted to buy Harbor 100 for office use. With a few more contracts like that, Quigg says, he can afford to make his plant even more environmentally sound and eventually build a recycled pulp mill to "close the loop." In the meantime, he says he'll keep taking advantage of the area's unique resources. We don't know how to stop the trees from growing here," he says. "We live in the best biomass area in the continental U.S."
Grays Harbor is a case study of how investment in renewable energy can bring rural areas back from the doldrums, explains Rep. Jay Inslee, a Washington state Democrat and clean-energy advocate. "I love small towns, and I don't like to see them shriveling up," he says. "Grays Harbor is just one of hundreds of towns that are experiencing this rebirth."
Among the other down-and-out locales banking on alternative energy:
langdon, north dakota: After watching its population blow away with its legendarily fierce winds, the town's leaders got an idea. Last December, it became home to a $300 million, 106-turbine wind farm that produces enough energy to power as many as 40,000 homes.
reynolds, indiana: Already known as "BioTown, USA," Reynolds is trying to go completely off the grid by tapping into a local resource: cow and hog manure. The town is about to break ground on an anaerobic digester, which will turn methane gas from animal waste into electricity.
clinton county, iowa: A refinery near the Mississippi pumps out 10 million gallons of biodiesel a year and supports 13 full-time jobs. The nearly two-year-old plant used soybeans until prices tripled; it now makes fuel from animal fats.
benson, minnesota: This old railroad town has an ethanol plant and a biomass power plant that burns turkey manure, or as the locals call it, "poultry litter." The plant burns 500,000 tons of the stuff a year, producing 55 megawatts of power and providing 100 new jobs.
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Get out! That's impossible! who are you kidding?!
i weren't born yesterday; if god wanted us to eat wood he wudda made us all beavers!
Grays Harbor is not a town. It's a county. If anyone wanted to know how out of touch politicians are with their non-big city constituency, look no further than Jay Inslee's quote.
This is a very nice article but the "green movement" goes deeper than that here in Grays Harbor. We also have the nations largest bio diesel plant with Imperium Grays Harbor at a capacity of 100 Million gallons a year and we have an up and coming company, Paneltech International, that produces PaperStone, an environmentally friendly countertop made from recycled paper and natural phenolic resin. People here are becoming more aware of the different ways to recycle, reuse, and make general lifestyle changes that will help us all in the long run. We also have a good economic boon in the makings with the possible sale and re-startup of the old pulp mill and the possible location choice of the 510 bridge pontoon project. Things are definitely looking up for the harbor and it is "the" place to be! Although I must say that Grays Harbor is indeed a county not a city! I would invite all of our "out of town" politicians to spend a little time getting to know us and our beautiful area.
Bio-mass is NOT green as it gives off high amounts of greenhouse gasses! A common missconception - sold to us by corn producers - although this plant is run from LOGGING waste (non sustainable) and they produce paper that only some will recycled. Going green needs to be more than just a new corporate wallpaper!
We got both Grays Harbor 100% recycled and a new copier at the same time. We started noticing black specks all over the paper. We assumed it was the copy machine doing this as it is possible toner was moving around in a new machine and it had to be cleaned. We called the tech and he spent the day taking apart the fuser and cleaning everything. Then he looked at a fresh piece of paper and noticed the black specks.
My university uses this paper (Humboldt State in Northern California). We have it in all our computer labs using up about 3-4 million pages a year just in the labs. About half our offices use the paper as well. The other half use some 100% recycled Boise paper product. The people at this company are fantastic. I e-mailed them to ask if the paper ream wraps were recyclable as well (most aren't) and they e-mailed back in about 20 minutes with a certificate, certifying the wraps as 100% recyclable. Not bad. I e-mailed Boise as well. A year later they haven't responded.
They make a nice solid product. You can see little speckles in the paper and every so often (I consider them funny prizes) something that looks like a hair. It lets you know the paper is the real deal. The Boise stuff looks perfect and it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't actually recycled at all.
Ethanol is entirely a government sponsored, BAD, idea, and cannot last, since it is NOT green, in any way, shape, or form......
Cyborg
Hey "jay inslee is an idiot", your post would come as a surprise to the residents of Grays Harbor City:
http://www.eachtown.com/city_info.php/cityid/45095
Couldn't agree more on ethanol. Why do these politicians don't care about the general public at all? It's the same everywhere, the developed country as well as the third world. They don't care about what happens to the environment or the human kind. But apparently, hydrogen power is coming fast to replace gasoline according to this website. So guys watch out for hydrogen and say goodbye to ethanol or even biodiesel
oops, forgot the website, sorry it's http://www.water4gas-scam.com
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You must have watched Leo DiCaprio's film. Actually, logging is not all bad. When you burn a tree it is technically only releasing back into the atmosphere carbon which it has captured. The tree is only a container. When you pump oil from below you are introducing deep surface carbon which has been here for millions of years. Young trees capture carbon at a much more significant rate than older trees. And, when you make furniture and flooring you are still containing the carbon you are only changing the shape of the container. Then replant new trees and they will capture more carbon at a much faster rate than the old tree you cut down. So, if the alternative is to use electricity from a coal burning facility then this is a no-brainer.
Rock on! Washington state was also where college students learned how to power a car on B.S. Now let's see how they do with old Ted Kennedy speeches...
There is a Grays Harbor City. Get a map
Just to clear up the confusion, Grays Harbor City is a rural "neighborhood" located in Grays Harbor County jurisdiction just outside of Hoquiam city limits. Grays Harbor Paper is located in the city limits of Hoquiam.
In response to Ron's post 6/9, I have read in a University of washington study that actually old growth trees sequester more carbon than young trees.
Also, old growth healthy forests are at risk when a society is creating fuel by burning wood pellets or wood logs. There is alot of money out there in grants. People can get carried away and use it as an excuse for logging.
your comment is not entirely 100% correct and seems the same as what I have read at a conservative right-wing media source such as "heartland institute" and I am sure it is what you find on the brochures of the logging/paper companies themselves; you are replacing a mature, established hardwood tree w/an immature tree which are always evergreen trees which do not capture carbon nearly as effectively, you are not counting all the emissions to chop the tree down or process the wood; you totally ignore the destruction of entire ecosystems in the "final cost"; all the paper companies from Scott to GP in Miss. state cut down whole forests and then brag about how green they are....the carbon created by chopping down trees, however, goes into the atmosphere all at once.....you are comparing apples and oranges....it is like a developer who fills in a natural wetland and the builds a "comparable wetland" to compensate....man cannot replace nature, as much as we would like to control it........w/our current results in the headlines as the final proof.....
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