Small Town News

Duwamish tour optimistic on river clean-up efforts

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The annual Duwamish River 101 Tour departed Pier 66 at Bell Harbor Marina Wednesday, Sept. 23. The tour was part of the Port of Seattle's 101 series.

The two-and-a-half hour cruise on the Argosy's Lady Mary took 166 passengers across the calm Elliott Bay and up the Duwamish River just beyond the First Avenue Bridge to highlight potential future green habitat sites amid industrial sites that pollute the waterway daily.

Tour guides also pointed out companies and sites they deem "the offenders," including a business with a large riverfront lot that grinds cars down for their metal. They are recycling, yes, but where does the gas, oil and rubber go?

Tour sponsors included the Environmental Protection Agency, Duwamish River Clean Up Coalition, Environmental Coalition of South Seattle, and the Muckle-shoot Tribe.

Speakers included Thea Levko-vitz, coordinator for the Duwamish River Clean-Up Coalition, George Blomberg, senior environmental program manager for the Port of Seattle, Allison Hiltner, project manager for the Environmental Protection Agency, and Kevin Burrell, executive director of the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle.

Levkovitz said the Duwamish River Clean-up Coalition strives to involve residents in communities living close to the river to impact and influence clean-up operations and to provide an independent ethical revue of what she called the thick and cumbersome documents provided by polluters, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Ecology reponsible for controlling the river's ongoing pollution.

"Right now you have over 100 years of industrial pollution, over 200 pipes for overflow drains on 32 square miles of urban industrial land draining into the river water," said Hiltner.

She said the city and county are actively doing environmental inspections of offending facilities they suspect are polluters.

"The Port invested about a quarter-billion dollars at Terminal 5 about 8 years ago and we double its size to 180 acres," said Blomberg. "We did $60 million of site cleanup, including the former municipal garbage dump that went into the bay. We bought the former Wyckoff wood-treatment plant superfund site and built a 5.8-acre public shore access site, Jack Block Park, with native shoreline vegetation. This might serve as an example of the way to do redevelopment.

"We are helping residents and businesses have a better impact on the environment in the South Park (and) Georgetown communities," said Burrell. "This tour is an example to highlight problems and get people involved."

Steve Shay can be reached at steves@robinsonnews.com

"This tour is an example to highlight problems and get people involved."

Kevin Burrell, Executive director, Environmental Coalition of South Seattle



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© 2010 West Seattle Herald Seattle, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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