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Environmental Protection Agency to spend $290 million for Duwamish cleanup

SEATTLE — The feds are taking a big step toward finishing the work of cleaning up the highly-contaminated Duwamish River. Now hundreds of millions of dollars are coming to try to restore the vital waterway.

The feds are earmarking $290 million to dredge the Duwamish River, which is something activists have demanded for years.

A lot of people new to the Seattle area may not know where the Duwamish River is. In fact, anyone who uses the West Seattle bridge is driving over the Duwamish River. It is the namesake of the Duwamish people and a source of seafood for at least three other tribes but it has suffered industrial pollution for decades.

You can’t escape the signs that any seafood that comes out of the Duwamish River needs special handling if it can be safely eaten at all. But that has not kept vibrant life out of these polluted waters.

“The Duwamish Rowing Club rows here,” said Dagmar Cronn, a local resident. “There are different kinds of animals and birds that have a right to be here. I just saw three otters on the banks a few days ago.”

The Duwamish River has been Cronn’s backyard for some 15 years. She watched the cleanup from here of this Superfund Site.

“Oh, yes,” said Cronn. “Half of the pollutants in the river have been removed from what are called hotspots. But now what’s left is very diffuse and not very high concentrations.”

Those pollutants can be all too real for South Park residents. Last December’s King Tides washed over nearly everything in its wake, leaving much of the community a soggy, contaminated mess.

“It’s time for us to follow the law follow the science,” said Robin Morris Collins, Senior Advisor to the Administrator for Environmental Justice, “and that leads us clearly into communities where we have not executed the mission.”

The Environmental Protection Agency held a news conference this weekend to outline the $290 million proposal to restore the Duwamish to its former seafood-rich self. The plan, say some residents, a great start.

“Absolutely,” said John Leonard, local resident. “I think more will need to be done. This river has been neglected and dumped in for a very long time.”

The work is expected to take 10 years to complete and the EPA says it wants to hear from people before they get started. They are taking public comment in the form of letters, e-mails, voicemails, or testimony at public hearings.

The deadline is June 27th.