P-I article on the Duwamish

[eridani]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/duwamish/341065_duwamish26.html

"It really disgusts me to see what's been done to this end of town," said Michelle Cook, a fifth-generation Seattleite who moved to the South Park neighborhood in January. "Our concern is that it will continue to be the dumping grounds."

Today, six years after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the river polluted enough to become a Superfund site, more than $70 million has been spent -- yet officials carrying out the cleanup don't even know the source of a lot of the pollution.

And pollution continues to pour into the river, including an emerging class of contaminants called phthalates, which can lower testosterone levels, lead to a pre-diabetic condition and, in rats, impair testicular function.

A King County official speculated that cleaning up the worst of the pollution would cost as much as another $200 million. But environmentalists say that still would leave behind so much contamination that no one could regularly eat clams, crab or most other Duwamish sea life.



Public meeting on this on 11/29

EPA and the Lower Duwamish Waterway Group have just released the results of their six-year investigation of the Duwamish River Superfund Site.

Join us for a Public Meeting to find out...

Where is the pollution?
How much pollution is there?
What are the effects on the environment and my health?

DRCC will provide free food and bilingual child care.
Spanish and Vietnamese interpretation will be provided.

Thursday, November 29, 6:00 p.m.
Concord Elementary School
723 S. Concord St.
South Park, Seattle

[maxsolomon]

1. The Duwamish has been F'd for a 100 years.

It was once the most productive delta in the US. Lakes Sammamish & Washington used to flow into it through Renton. The White River used to flow into it off of Mt. Rainier.

It has been robbed of 2/3 of its flow, channelized, dredged, had its delta filled with The Regrade, and been polluted non-stop. It is likely a major source of the PCBs that are killing the Orca pods. It has ONE section of natural bank left: Foster Island.

That ANY salmon try & return is mind-boggling. Cleaning it up will take a century & trillions of $. It is highly unlikely that Amurka would try.