(WSB photo from 2016 water-tower removal)
Nine years ago, that was the scene as Nucor‘s old West Seattle water tower was being removed. Now, another big visual change is ahead: Today was the first day of about five weeks of work at the Nucor mill on a removal project that’s been four decades in the making. Nucor is removing three smokestacks that were decommissioned in 1985. They won’t be blown up or otherwise demolished – we’re told they’ll be removed in sections, to be scrapped and recycled, in keeping with the Nucor plant’s status as our state’s largest recycler. A spokesperson for Nucor tells us that two of the three smokestacks date back to 1957, when the mill was under different ownership (Nucor has owned it since 2002, 97 years after it started steelmaking). They were used to service “soaking pits” for reheating iron ingots; the third smokestack was moved from elsewhere on the property in 1967 to do the same thing. But in 1985, those “soaking pits” were decommissioned, and so were the stacks. The Nucor spokesperson says they’ve all been tested for hazardous waste, “with negative results.” Dickson Demolition will remove the smokestacks in sections; their steel will be recycled – where else? – onsite.. Nucor Seattle’s general manager Mark Davis said in a statement, ““The old smokestacks have been unused for 40 years and are from a bygone era of steelmaking that is disconnected from modern steelmaking.” Work is expected to continue for the next five weeks or so during regular operating hours.
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