#tideflats

While the atmospheric releases were mostly steam and not toxic gasses or particulates, the pulp mill (one of several in those days) emitted a distinct and unpleasant odor - the "smell of money" some wits suggested. In the mid twentieth century and a few kms away the ASARCO smelter also emitted gasses along with particulates, and some of those were both odoriferous and toxic. The smelter is long gone, and I have not been in Tacoma for more than a few hours in the past dozen years, so I do not know if the pulp mill still emits smelly gasses. Perhaps the blind now need other cues, not olfactory ones, to recognize Tacoma.

Northwest Hauling truck towing a floating bulkhead. Tacoma, WA. (1971)

:) Yo Ma Ma

“The Aroma of Tacoma,” View of the tideflats industrial area across the Thea Foss Waterway from the 11th Street (Now Murray Morgan) Bridge, Winter 1973. It may have been called the Thea Foss Waterway then, but I do not remember that name in use until much later. The smog, which smelled quite foul, was mostly the steam from the now long defunct pulp mill.