What to do with Georgia Pacific's old Lagoon

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Viewing old treatment lagoon over flower beds at WWU campus.

I guess I don't really care whether it becomes a marina, or a park. It's just another thing for people to fight about.

Then there is someone, I know, who suggests just leaving it a waste water treatment lagoon. Who knows, we may have future needs for the lagoon as a treatment facility.

Another writer leans toward the marina idea because he says it brings income and "having a job, being able to eat." is an important priority.

Well, I don't consume very much and I still can live on "part time" work, but it does take money to build something. There are many exciting plans for Bellingham's central waterfront (the old GP mill site), of which this lagoon is just one section.

A bit south of the lagoon are plans for trails, parks, mixed use neighborhoods, old building restoration. There are even plans for relocating WWU's Huxley College of the Environment down there.

I just want to see them get something done, before I pass from this planet.

Maybe the marina is most practical, just so that something gets done. A revenue source.

At least it's a plan that's been on a roll.

There is still a long process of studying, community input and clean up ahead. It will be several years before things really get going. Maybe I am advocating being hasty, in planning, but I just want to see fences come down and the new waterfront take shape, what ever they decide, with-in reason, to do.

There is now the "Bellingham Bay Initiative" as some folks feel there needs to be an even more thorough cleanup than what's currently proposed.

I just point out that 42 thousand people die each year in car accidents. Why can't we throw up a bunch of "paper shuffling" roadblocks in front of the cars?

As for what they do with mercury in the old GP site; it may not be a dreadfully serious hazard. I tend to trust "departments of ecology," and so forth. They will be studying it, planning things and taking extra precautions, for years.

One can count on that.

It was said that the process will cost reams of paper and a truckload of "copy machine toner."

I just hope I am still alive, and able to take a stroll, when that new "waterfront neighborhood" opens.