Duwamish Valley residents face health threats, study shows as EPA chooses Superfund cleanup plan By Robert McClure | March 28, 2013. [7] The shallow, meandering, nine-mile-long river became a five-mile engineered waterway capable of handling ocean-going vessels. [Image description: a photo of Celina Steiger and a group of students on the deck of the Argosy boat during the Duwamish River Program. In 1909 the City of Seattle formed the Duwamish Waterway Commission in order to sell bonds and oversee the re-channelling of the river. Drawing on the environmental education curriculum of IslandWood’s Community Waters program, the Duwamish River Program incorporates many of the strategies used in Community Waters – with a twist. The Duwamish River faces many types of pollution, in addition to the contaminants named above. The Coalition helps people learn about and get involved in decisions regarding cleanup. A key step in this collaboration was to ask the DRCC what they hoped students would come away from the program understanding – about the river, its history, and the ongoing efforts to clean it up. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Along the way, Celina and her fellow instructors demonstrate to their students that while addressing environmental issues isn’t easy, it is possible – even at one of the most polluted sites in the U.S. [9] Cleanup and restoration efforts are ongoing. IslandWood acknowledges that we live and work on the ancestral land of the Coast Salish people, who have been stewards of this region's land and waters since time immemorial, and who continue to protect these lands and waters for future generations, as promised by the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855, the Treaty of Point No Point of 1855, and the Treaty of Medicine Creek of 1854. We promote place-keeping and prioritize community capacity and resilience. They are posing in front of a drawn map of the river.]. Kellogg Island, the last remnant of the original river, was declared a wildlife preserve, and nearby terminal T-107 was converted into a park, creating a substantial natural area near the mouth of the river. [5][6], In 1895, Eugene Semple, who had earlier served as Governor of Washington Territory, outlined a plan for a series of major public works projects in the Seattle area, including the straightening and dredging of the Duwamish River, both to open up the area to commercial use and to alleviate flooding. … [14], Despite the industrialization of the Duwamish river, it remains an important habitat for the thousands of salmon and trout that visit the marshes and estuaries each year to spawn. The study will also determine whether the carbon has negative effects on the animals that live in the sediment that ma… [1], Native villages on the Duwamish were eventually supplanted by white settlement and commercial use, and there was evidence of deliberate burning of Indian longhouses in 1893. [10], In 2009, the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center was opened on the west bank of the river as part of the tribe's reassertion of its historic rights in the area and its continuing struggle for federal recognition of tribal status.[3]. It also includes the ongoing restoration efforts by the Duwamish Tribe, Boeing, the City of Seattle, groups like the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC), and many dedicated individuals. Debris along the Duwamish River.Credit: Paul Joseph Brown/InvestigateWestThe residents of south Seattle’s 98108 ZIP code, some living cheek-by-jowl with the Duwamish River Superfund site, face a high degree of environmental health threats and are likely … Green-Duwamish Watershed The Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been working together since 2001 to identify, cleanup and control sources of pollution to the Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW). function GTranslateFireEvent(element,event){try{if(document.createEventObject){var evt=document.createEventObject();element.fireEvent('on'+event,evt)}else{var evt=document.createEvent('HTMLEvents');evt.initEvent(event,true,true);element.dispatchEvent(evt)}}catch(e){}} Pink salmon run in the millions every odd-numbered years in recent history. [11] The cleanup of the river has been controversial: one plan for an "early action" or hotspot cleanup proposed to dredge contaminated sediment and dump the resulting sludge in Tacoma's Commencement Bay, 26 miles (42 km) to the southwest. *Source: https://www.duwamishcleanup.org/our-mission, Your email address will not be published. Four entities partially responsible for the sediment contamination—the city of Seattle, King County, the Port of Seattle, and aerospace manufacturer Boeing—already have poured $200 million into initial efforts to reduce PCB levels on the Duwamish, cutting them by half since work began in 2013. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The Duwamish River has been a catalyst for innovation in Seattle, but with dire consequences. After the completion of the man-made Harbor Island in 1909, the mouth of the river was divided into two channels, the East and West Waterways. The last five miles of the Duwamish River is contaminated; it is a United States Superfund Site.The City of Seattle is part of the Lower Duwamish Working Group (LDWG) who is working to clean up the river. HistoryLink.org Essay 2986; NOAA press release,"$4.6 MILLION PROJECT WILL RESTORE 16.5 ACRES OF CRITICAL AQUATIC HABITAT ALONG LOWER DUWAMISH RIVER AT SEABOARD LUMBER SITE"; Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition-History/Vision; United States Environmental Protection Agency, Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition/Technical Advisory Group, http://www.duwamishtribe.org/culture.html, http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8894, http://www.duwamishtribe.org/ballastisland.html, http://www.burkemuseum.org/static/waterlines/process.php, http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=2986, http://www.boeing.com/principles/environment/duwamish/history.page, http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/pr98/nov98/noaa98-r158.html, http://duwamishcleanup.org/about/history/, "Seattle's Aquatic Environments: Duwamish Estuary", "Life on the Duwamish:Rediscovering Seattle's Dirty South", "A River Lost? The lower portion of the historic White River—from the historic confluence of the White and Green Rivers to the conjunction with the Black River—is now considered part of the Green River. For example, other than salmon, any type of fish or shellfish found in the river is unfit for human consumption. Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment is a partner in the Green Duwamish Learning Landscape (GDLL). [1] Both of these have been anglicized as Duwamish. Your email address will not be published. Focus is on high flow/high turbidity events that may contribute more to the annual loading than average flow conditions. Due to 20th century industrial contamination, the lower 5 miles (8.0 km) of the Duwamish was declared a Superfund site by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. By continuing to use this site, you agree to allow us to collect information using cookies. Tan and energetic in blue jeans, BJ Cummings, development and policy adviser for the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC), ushers guests into a small white fishing boat owned by the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, a group that patrols the river to prevent pollution. Many immigrant populations use this river … To do this, they chose to include a wide variety of activities and perspectives. The community has long-prioritized air quality and … Its industrialized estuary is known as the Duwamish Waterway. [Image description: a photo of three students on the Argosy boat during the Duwamish River Program. The lower waterway is spanned by four major, public bridges: the First Avenue South Bridge, the South Park Bridge, the Spokane Street Bridge, and, directly above the latter, the West Seattle Bridge. Currently we are working on scientific studies and design planning for river cleanup and controlling sources of pollution to the river. The Lower Duwamish River is an industrial waterway in Seattle plagued with industrial pollution dating back to the early 1900s. Because, as an instructional strategy, connecting students’ classroom learning to real-world phenomena in their own communities helps make scientific and sociological concepts tangible and engaging. AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION, Where Community Waters focuses on investigating environmental phenomena through the lens of the, To meet this goal, IslandWood’s team, led by Celina, drew on, CRAFTING A COMMUNITY-CONNECTED PROGRAM THROUGH COLLABORATION WITH LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS. In 1913, the Duwamish River was excavated and dredged, and within a few years, it was transformed into a five-mile waterway that enabled a century of development in Seattle’s commercial district. Many of the animal species found in or around the river contain an unhealthy amount of contaminants. On the bank, an industrial-looking structure is visible.]. The work will include dredging areas prone to erosion, in some cases laying dow… With a complex history, multiple issues at play, and a variety of stakeholders affected, the Duwamish River proved to be the perfect site to explore each of these elements in a real-world context. Activities included cargo handling and storage, marine construction, ship and boat manufacturing, concrete manufacturing, paper and metals fabrication, food processing, and countless other industrial operations. Today, these students are not only learning about the history of the river, but exploring their role as stakeholders in what its future could and should look like. The Maple Elementary students call out a variety of answers to Celina’s question, drawing on what they’ve learned about the river’s history and the affect of that history on those closest to it, including the students’ fellow residents of the South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods, the Duwamish Tribe, salmon traveling to the river to spawn, and many others. Some of the Duwamish’s polluted dirt – or sediment, as it’s called under water — is thought to settle along the river’s final five miles above the West Seattle Bridge, the part of the river already classified as a Superfund site because it numbers among the nastiest pollution messes in the country. The Duwamish River is an important tributary to Puget Sound, as well as one of the biggest sources of pollution into the Sound. The Lower Duwamish Waterway Source Control Implementation Plan builds on over 50 years of investments made by King County to clean up the Duwamish River. Then, with the opening of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in 1916, the lake's level dropped nearly nine feet and the Black River dried up. As participants in IslandWood’s new pilot program, the Duwamish River Program, they have spent the past three hours learning about the social and ecological history of the river that lies at the heart of their own community. "The Green-Duwamish: A River System Re-Plumbed". This tool helps students strengthen their knowledge of public issues, learn about different stakeholder perspectives, and advocate for individual and collective action. Learn more in our, Virtual Water Programs for King and Snohomish Counties, Day Programs in Seattle and at Brightwater. [Image description: A student stands on the deck of the Argosy boat and looks out at the bank of the river. The last year-round native residents on the river - an old man named Seetoowathl, and his wife - died of starvation in their float-house on Kellogg Island in the winter of 1920. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Another student is pointing at the text on the handout.]. In 1906, however, the White River changed course following a major flood and emptied into the Puyallup River as it does today. IslandWood is a registered 501c3 charitable organization. EPA's Community Advisory Group for the site, the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition/Technical Advisory Group, conducted a review of the plan and published a Community Fact Sheet with a summary of its assessment and recommendations for improvement. In both her book and her work for the SRP, Cummings addresses Duwamish River pollution from an environmental justice angle. Best of all, we are able to help students recognize that “the environment” is all around them – in the neighborhoods, streets, and waterways they see every day. “What should the Duwamish River be like in the future?”. The Duwamish supports chinook, coho, The Duwamish River, for example, is Washington’s section of the Green River that offers local communities access to salmon, clams, squid, crabs, rockfish, flounder, and perch (Washington State Department of Health 2016). LDWG is performing a pilot study of an innovative cleanup technology using activated carbon to trap contaminants (e.g., PCBs) in sediments in order to prevent them from entering the food chain. The pollution found in the pipe was uncharacteristic for the Duwamish River, the special agent said, and could be evidence of illegal discharges from the Lafarge plant. During the three hour trip down the river, guest stakeholders come onboard the Argosy boat to share their connection to the Duwamish River, scientists from Seattle Public Utilities help students test the quality of the water, and the boat pauses at five “Story Stops” that offer insights into different aspects of the river’s history. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. During the first of these stops, at Kellogg Island, students gain a deeper appreciation for the role of the Duwamish Tribe in stewarding the river. When those sea foods are eaten by those who have traditionally depended on the Duwamish for their food supply, such as the Native American inhabitants of the Seattle area, they ingest harmful chemicals. One major form of pollution is fecal coliform caused by sewage overflow. We will never see a truly healthy Puget Sound until we clean up the Duwamish and the other rivers that sustain the Sound. [15] The cleanup of the river has been controversial: one plan for an "early action" or hotspot cleanup proposed to dredge contaminated sediment and dump the resulting sludge in Tacoma's Commencement Bay, 26 miles (42 km) to the southwest. [8], The Duwamish basin soon became Seattle's industrial and commercial core area. function doGTranslate(lang_pair){if(lang_pair.value)lang_pair=lang_pair.value;if(lang_pair=='')return;var lang=lang_pair.split('|')[1];if(GTranslateGetCurrentLang() == null && lang == lang_pair.split('|')[0])return;var teCombo;var sel=document.getElementsByTagName('select');for(var i=0;i