Small-town America's Green Lifeline
NEWS: These small towns were dying. Then alternative power reenergized them.
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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.
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.
Photo: Kanty Quigg/Daily World
i weren't born yesterday; if god wanted us to eat wood he wudda made us all beavers!
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.
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.
Cyborg
http://www.eachtown.com/city_info.php/cityid/45095