`Everything Is Dead' -- Bellingham Fireball Turned Dreams Of Reviving Salmon Habitat To Ashes -- How Gas Leaked And How It Ignited Remain Mystery

With three people dead, a creek destroyed and months of clean-up ahead, the notion that it could have been much worse is a small - but not unworthy - consolation.

City Deputy Administrator Don Keenan said if the gas from a leaking pipeline had drifted farther down Whatcom Creek before it ignited, hundreds or thousands more people could have been killed.

But the explosions and fire, which sent plumes of black smoke six miles above the city, nevertheless did enough damage to stun and sadden this town of 60,000 during a week in which it had hoped to bask in graduations and the first hints of summer.

All day yesterday, the smell of gasoline and charcoal hung heavy in the air as technicians took air samples and city employees worked to repair drinking-water pumps.

This much is known: Thousands of gallons of gasoline leaked into the creek, two miles east of Bellingham's downtown. What is not known are the specifics: How did the gas leak and what ignited it? While investigators wait for the area to cool down, area residents grieve not only for the three victims but also for the creek itself.

The accident incinerated dreams just beginning to come true of restoring salmon runs to the creek's upper reaches.

The fire heated the water to 81 degrees, probably killing every fish in the area. At least one worker found fish with charred heads. Stream-side vegetation was reduced to smoking ash and blackened stumps.

Creek "a dead zone"

Bruce Barbour, an environmental specialist with the State Department of Ecology, who was able to inspect part of the creek before it was closed off for safety reasons, described it as "a dead zone."

"It's unbelievable. Even worse than I imagined. Everything is dead. Even the worms in the soil," said Barbour. "It changed the very structure of the shoreline."

The creek is about 3 1/2 miles long and runs from Lake Whatcom to Bellingham Bay. Some of it runs through downtown, but other portions run through high-quality fish habitat in and around a city park. The habitat considered highest quality was destroyed by the fire.

Burning gasoline destroyed vegetation on both sides of the creek for a stretch of at least 1 1/4 miles, which includes areas in and out of Whatcom Falls Park. The park is about two miles east of the city.

Some of the park's prettiest spots were torched, including a gorge that is home to some of the creek's best swimming holes. A new salmon park on five acres of forested wetlands, acquired with $500,000 in federal money, was to be dedicated later this month.

"The upper part of the stream was a treasure, a community jewel," said Robyn duPre, North Sound Bay Keeper with Resources for Sustainable Communities, an environmental group in Bellingham.

Salmon-restoration efforts were working, duPre said. The local Rotary Club and other volunteers paid for a fish ladder to cross a sewer pipe that had blocked upstream passage for salmon. Some of the first salmon to return to the creek in a century laid eggs in the upper reaches of the creek, only to have them destroyed by the fire.

The stream was home to Puget Sound chinook, recently listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, as well as chum and coho salmon and native runs of steelhead and cutthroat trout.

A detailed assessment of the damage and a clean-up plan still had not been launched as of late yesterday. State inspectors were frustrated by lingering gasoline vapors and fires that continued to smolder, making it unsafe for them to approach the stream.

The best option to clean up the spill may be letting nature run its course, allowing the gasoline to evaporate and the stream to naturally purge itself, according to Ron Langley of the state Department of Ecology. Biologists may decide to remove contaminated soil. They could also put oil-gobbling bacteria into the soil.

No one knows yet if gasoline contaminated the entire water column and creek bed, or if gas stayed on the surface and burned off in the fire. Gasoline is toxic to fish and other aquatic life, killing on contact. But if it remains on the surface, much of it will evaporate, especially in warm weather.

Volunteers who have dedicated themselves to recovering salmon runs in the creek were heartbroken.

Elaine and Mike McGrory of Bellingham donated the sale of Mike McGrory's dental practice to a fund for salmon restoration, and the two have spent many volunteer hours on creek restoration projects.

"We'll have to start over again. It just kills you when you think of what's been lost," Elaine McGrory said. She and her husband have donated about $300,000 to salmon restoration.

Two hatcheries on the creek were unaffected by the disaster. There was no contamination of the drinking-water supply. Bellingham Bay and Lake Whatcom were also unaffected.

The 16-inch line that broke runs 40 miles from two refineries in Cherry Point, Whatcom County, to a pumping station near Mount Vernon. The line is part of a 400-mile pipeline system in Western Washington operated out of Olympic Pipe Line's headquarters in Renton.

The fuel leak occurred Thursday afternoon shortly after a failure of the main computer that controls movement of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel through the pipeline. Fuel may have been spilling for 12 minutes or longer before it was detected. The amount spilled has not been determined, but estimates ranged from 84,000 gallons to 277,000 gallons.

Gasoline rushed down Whatcom Creek. Authorities don't know what ignited the fire but aren't ruling out a spark from a spark plug, a cigarette, a pilot light or fireworks.

C. Craig Hammett, an engineering coordinator with the pipeline company, said the leak occurred within a mile of where a 1996 test discovered that the 16-inch pipeline wall was thinner than normal.

That test, performed by sending a computerized sensing device down the pipeline, found a "sub-critical" abnormality in the pipe, meaning that it found a place in which the thickness was slightly less than normal but still above the thickness required by state regulations and the company's own stricter guidelines.

"It could have been something like a scratch or dimple," Hammett said, adding that there's no indication it was related to yesterday's leak, but that it will likely be examined by investigators.

Proposed pipeline in trouble

The accident comes as Olympic is facing mounting opposition to its proposed cross-Cascades pipeline.

The company has proposed building a 230-mile pipeline, primarily underground, across the Cascades to carry gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in Western Washington to the Columbia Basin and beyond. The proposed route would begin near Bothell and end in Pasco.

Environmentalists and citizen groups oppose the project because of safety and environmental concerns. Yesterday's accident is expected to bolster their opposition. The final decision will be made by Gov. Gary Locke, but various state and local agencies have already made their sentiments clear.

The state Parks and Recreation Commission yesterday denied Olympic's request to build its proposed pipeline across three state parks. The commission insisted the Bellingham explosion had nothing to do with its decision.

Commissioner Bruce Hilyer said the timing was "entirely a coincidence."

The commission voted unanimously against the company's application to cross parts of Ginkgo Petrified Forest in Eastern Washington, and Iron Horse State Park and Olallie State Park in the Cascades.

John Teriet, a company spokesman, raised no objection. "Today's a very tough day," he said somberly. "Our hearts today are in Bellingham with the families."'

Olympic is owned by a consortium of oil companies, and is operated by Equilon Enterprises, a joint venture of Texaco and Shell. Equilon also owns a refinery in nearby Anacortes where an explosion and fire killed six workers last November.

Seattle Times staff reporters Chris Solomon, Lynda Mapes, Carol Ostrom, Ross Anderson, Jack Broom and Alex Tizon contributed to this report