on the cover / By HSU Investigative Reporting students

Meltdown

The plant was demolished Feb. 28. Now temporary barbed-wire fences, a broken tape that says “caution,” a rusted chain link fence, and moss and weeds surround the concrete foundation that still stands on the Eureka Ice lot, complete with thick, rusty screws and burnt pieces of old insulation. Pieces of wood, chipped paint, ripped insulation and cigarette butts cover the ground.

The remaining portion of the business seems deserted. Seagulls circle overhead. The moist air smells like salt water. It is eerily quiet. Graffiti and cobwebs decorate the walls. Trucks are still parked at the loading dock. The sign for Eureka Ice and Cold Storage lies on the rusted slab and an old, empty bag of party ice that the wind blew around the fence lies on the sidewalk. The one-and-a-half-acre lot is listed with Cutten Realty for $850,000.

This was once a thriving, family-owned business at the center of the region’s fishing industry. “I can remember when I was a kid the salmon boats would be lined up 10 to 15 deep waiting to get ice,” said tugboat operator Leroy Zerlang, a lifelong resident of Humboldt County and chief historian at the Humboldt Maritime Museum.

To understand the collapse of a long-standing business that so many people depended on you need to read through a ream of documents.

That’s because the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, which ordered the company to shut down pending seismic upgrades, will not discuss the case. Neither will the family that owned it. Through e-mail, Dennis Hunter, a longtime member of the Harbor Commission, explained how he took ownership of the company in 2006 upon the death of his father, Gilbert Hunter, who bought the business in 1981. Dennis Hunter said he left the operations of the business to his brother and he politely declined numerous requests for an interview.

“I feel that the Eureka Ice & Cold Storage facility is now old news,” Hunter wrote. “Our family no longer has that business. In fact, we are leasing a portion of our property to Arctic Ice, a company headquartered in Coos Bay, Oregon. Arctic Ice provides party ice to many businesses in the area. The flake ice for commercial fishermen is now being offered by Pacific Choice and Caito Fisheries.”

After the plant shut its doors, the Hunters decided to close it for good because they decided they could not afford the seismic upgrades. Were the building not in an earthquake region, it would likely still be in operation today.

And that’s disturbing. Because documents obtained through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and California Public Records Act from the many public agencies that oversaw Eureka Ice and Cold Storage — the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; California Department of Public Health, the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services; and Eureka Fire Department, Building Department, and Public Works — go back more than a decade. They detail the company’s slow deterioration.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NEXT PAGE >SHARE