We want to express our grave concerns for the health of the Duwamish Valley communities as a result of proposed changes to how EPA and members of the Lower Duwamish Waterway Group  intend to clean up our Duwamish River. 

WITHOUT community consultation, EPA and these responsible parties recently proposed three changes to our river cleanup that increase toxic exposures and health risks to our community and undermine our hard-won river cleanup which violates EPA’s and Ecology’s environmental justice policies, ignores our local governments’ stated commitments to equity, and threatens to further exacerbate pronounced health disparities that have been documented in our communities.

Those of us who live, work and fish in the Duwamish Valley have specific concerns related to the health of our river, as well as potential solutions.  We had  assurances from our city, county and port policy makers that when making decisions about river cleanup that our community voice would be heard in equal measure to the agencies and industries which have historically held more sway in local government planning. Our communities are constantly suffering the environmental impacts of the industrialized Duwamish Valley and we see the results in pronounced environmental and health disparities that have been well documented.

The communities most impacted by the Duwamish Superfund site are in Seattle’s low-income, Black, Indigenous, People of Color,  Immigrant and Refugee neighborhoods of South Park and Georgetown – areas that are home to some of Seattle’s most economically disenfranchised households with poor health outcomes. To begin to right the scales of justice, our community deserves the most thorough cleanup possible – or, at least the cleanup that was ordered by EPA in their 2014 Record of Decision for the Superfund Site.  

The 2014 cleanup decision was already a compromise for our impacted communities – the current three proposals,  pushed by the Lower Duwamish Waterway Group and other responsible parties, further undermine the  cleanup of the river and its communities.  These three proposals that have been made without community consultation and shared decision making show how institutionalized racism continues to operate in Seattle.  

1) EPA scientists have “reassessed” the toxicity of cPAHs and now think that it is safe for people to be exposed to higher levels than the current standards allow. As a result, the Lower Duwamish Waterway Group and EPA proposes to change the Duwamish cleanup plan to allow the cPAH cleanup levels to be 7 times higher. Independent scientists who have reviewed the data do not believe that the evidence of lower toxicity is strong enough to support decisions that increase people’s exposure to carcinogenic PAHs. 

2) EPA is preparing to release a cleanup plan for the last leg of the Duwamish, where the river’s “East Waterway” enters Elliott Bay. This plan proposes to weaken cleanup levels by approximately 15 times for PCBs, 3 times for arsenic, and 5 times for dioxins/furans compared to the 2014 Duwamish Waterway cleanup order  for the rest of the river. Because the whole river is connected, this undermines the entire river cleanup and directly threatens the health of the river’s native and immigrant fishing communities. (The East Waterway’s Spokane Street fishing pier is the most popular fishing spot on the entire river for the region’s native, immigrant and refugee fishing communities.) 

3) Jorgensen Forge and EPA propose to allow the company to abandon PCBs in the river bottom that it left behind in violation of EPA orders, saving the company millions of dollars. Jorgensen Forge was cleaned up as an Early Action Area because it had some of the river’s highest levels of contamination and posed an immediate threat to the environment and people’s health. The company violated EPA’s cleanup orders, leaving behind high levels of PCBs and burying them under backfill. The company was fined and a new cleanup order was prepared. Now EPA proposes to allow the company to leave behind much of their mess. 

WE DEMAND
(1) Full community involvement, consultation and agreement to all changes to the river cleanup;

(2) Upholding the commitment to a full,equitable, and health protective river cleanup that includes the Lower Duwamish Superfund Site and the Duwamish River’s East Waterway

(3) Adherence to the requirements of Jorgensen’s 2013 cleanup order to require immediate removal of all toxic chemicals covered by the original cleanup plan.

(4) Follow Environmental Justice principles and pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity and a systematic, anti-racist approach to embedding fairness in decision-making processes for the river.

(5) Stop making harmful decisions or opening comment periods during a pandemic for an environmental justice community already facing many challenges and inequities.

The Duwamish River must be recovered to standards that support our community and fishing for future generations. We demand health justice, especially for community members who have been historically marginalized, silenced, and disproportionately burdened with the legacy pollutants that have given rise to this cleanup. 

For more information please visit https://www.duwamishcleanup.org/superfund