Read about the latest and archived news on the Duwamish River Superfund site and the work of the DRCC/TAG. Check back here for frequent updates.

Latest News

• August 4, 2011, "Obama Administration Advances Efforts to Protect Health of U.S. Communities Overburdened by Pollution." U.S. Department of Interior. Building on its commitment to ensuring strong protection from environmental and health hazards for all Americans, the Obama Administration recently announced Federal agencies have agreed to develop environmental justice strategies to protect the health of people living in communities overburdened by pollution.
• July 25, 2011, "Exploring Seattle's Hometown River," Seattle's Child. In her unique positive and descriptive writing style, BJ Cummings writes about different places and ways in which Seattle's families can enjoy one of Seattle's hidden treasures: the Duwamish River.
• July 15, 2011, "Duwamish neighborhoods are a 'food dessert' in foodie Seattle," InvestigateWest. Carol Smith writes about how even though Seattle has gained a national reputation as a haven for "foodies", there's a food dessert in its own backyard, ironically in an area that once helped feed a growing city.
• July 9, 2011, "Seattle's South Park residents share a passion for place," Seattle Times.
• April 16, 2011, "Hero for a Day: Rescuing a Seattle River" featuring Dhira Brown, Restoration Ecologist with People For Puget Sound, our coalition member organizations, at Duwamish Alive!.

2010 River Cleanup Alternatives (Feasibility Study)

• March 21, 2011, "Should Duwamish cleanup also focus on health of people living nearby?" Seattlepi.com
• March 21, 2011, "Would you eat Duwamish fish? Some do, despite warnings." Seattlepi.com
• January 13, 2011, "Time to commit to a wider approach to cleaning up the Duwamish River." Seattle Times Op/Ed by James Rasmussen and Richard Conlin
• December 28, 2010, "EPA Unveils Options for Duwamish Cleanup." Seattle Times
• December 16, 2011, "Duwamish River Cleanup Options, the EPA, and the South Park Community." Green Acre Radio KBCS FM 91.3; read the transcript on the Seattle P.I. Reader Blog page.
• December 8, 2010, "Public Hearing on Duwamish Cleanup," Real Change News
• December 7, 2010, "KUOW's The Conversation: Duwamish Cleanup." Ross Reynolds interviews Robert McClure, from InvestigateWest, about 15 minutes into show.
• December 7, 2010, "Duwamish River: Should the Cleanup make Fish Safe to Eat Regularly?" Crosscut/InvestigateWest
• November 15, 2010, "EPA's Plan to Clean Up Duwamish River Isn't Enough." The Stranger's SLOG.

• October 19, 2010, "Time for Everyone's Opinion on Key Duwamish Decisions," West Seattle Blog. Excellent summary, w/links of Duwamish River cleanup

• October 19, 2010, "Duwamish River Cleanup could Cost more than $1Billion," KIRO Radio News
• October 19, 2010, "Public Forum on Duwamish Cleanup Airs Concerns and Clarifies Goals," West Seattle Herald
• October 17, 2010, "New Superfund Cleanup Proposals Released for Duwamish River," West Seattle Herald

Recent Features on the Duwamish Cleanup

• December 17, 2010, "James Rasmussen, former Duwamish Longhouse Director, becomes DRCC Coordinator." West Seattle Herald
• August 4, 2010, "Best of Seattle: Cari Simson, Best Toxic Avenger," Seattle Weekly "Best of 2010" issue
• KUOW 94.9 FM "Weekday" show on August 6th, 2009 9:40am. Host Steve Scher comes on a kayak of the Duwamish River and highlights important issues; infomation about the 2009 Duwamish River Festival. (When Quicktime opens to play the MP3, let it load and the Duwamish segment is about 2/3 of the way through)
• PBS Frontline, April 22, 2009 and online. More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, two iconic waterways—the great coastal estuaries Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay—are in perilous condition. FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the rising hazards to human health and the ecosystem, and why it’s so hard to keep our waters clean. View the online video podcast about the Frontline feature, moderated by Hedrick Smith, featuring new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Bill Ruckleshaus, Ron Simms, and others.
  Watch a rebroadcast on KCTS Channel 9 - Tuesday, June 9th at 8pm. Please see KCTS web site for more information.
• SEATTLE MAGAZINE, November 2008: "Stream of Conscience" (2008 "Power List": see Environment)
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, November 25–27, 2007: "Duwamish: A River Lost?"
• SEATTLE MAGAZINE, July 2007: "A river runs through it."
• SEATTLE TIMES/PACIFIC NORTHWEST MAGAZINE, October 3, 2004: "The Road Back: From Seattle's Superfund Sewer to Haven Once More."

The Duwamish Vision

• November 16, 2010, "Fueling Sustainable Job Growth, Starting with common ground."
• Eco-Industrial Development in the Duwamish Valley: KPLU, June 14, 2010: "Seattle City Council Ponders Greening Industrial Areas."
• CROSSCUT, July 28, 2009: "A Model for the Duwamish in Quebec?"
• WEST SEATTLE HERALD, February 21, 2009: "Duwamish Cleanup Plan Less Murky"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, February 19, 2009: "Pristine Future Envisioned for Duwamish River Valley"
• KING 5 NEWS, February 19, 2009: "Group Hopes to Restore Polluted Waterway"
• WEST SEATTLE BLOG, February 19, 2009: "Duwamish Vision Released: Water Taxis, Aerial Gondolas, Or..?"
• WEST SEATTLE HERALD, June 9, 2008: "Restoring River is the Vision"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, June 9, 2008: "A grand plan for Duwamish neighbors"
• REAL CHANGE NEWS, February 27, 2008: "Duwamish visioning includes homeless"

South Park PCBs & Dioxins

• March 21, 2011, "Department of Ecology sampling local soil for Dioxins and Furans."
• May 19, 2010, "Dioxin Questions Rise along the Duwamish," Seattle Times
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, September 28, 2008: "Dioxin in soil? South Park takes finding in stride"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, September 12, 2008: "Highly toxic dioxins found in dirt in South Park, test show"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, June 28, 2006: "Port opts to exceed EPA's South Park cleanup plan"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, May 25, 2006: "'Malarkey' cleanup pits port, activists"
• REAL CHANGE, May 26, 2006: "Toxic Avengers: Duwamish watchdogs want Port to be diligent in cleanup of PCBs"
• KING-5, May 26, 2006: "Toxic sliver on the river to be cleaned up"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, March 21, 2006: "Tests find high pollution at old plant: Site near Duwamish River has PCBs at 900 times cleanup level"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, October 18, 2005: "Port agrees to test for chemicals at plant site"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, September 14, 2005: "South Park awash in PCBs."
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, July 13, 2005: "South Park gets microscopic scrutiny for big PCB cleanup."
• SEATTLE TIMES, November 9, 2004: "High Levels of PCBs Uncovered Near River."
• KOMO-TV (Ch.4), November 9, 2004:"Toxic Chemicals in Local Neighborhoods."
• KING5-TV, November 9, 2004: "High PCB Levels Found in South Seattle."
• ASSOCIATED PRESS, November 9, 2004: "High Toxic Chemical Levels Found in Duwamish River Area."

Slip 4 Cleanup

• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, February 6, 2007: "PCBs threaten Duwamish River cleanup near Boeing Field"
• REAL CHANGE, October 5, 2006: "PCB contaminated South Seattle inlet slated for cleanup"
• REAL CHANGE NEWS, March 1, 2006: "Getting a Grip on the Slip"

Duwamish/Diagonal CSO

• KUOW 94.9 FM "Weekday" show on September 29, 2009 9:00-10:00am. Host Steve Scher interviews King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine; questions about the Duwamish River happen about 3/4 of the way through the hour.
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, November 22, 2004: "Short-term fix ordered for Duwamish pollution hot spot."
• SEATTLE TIMES, June 10, 2004: "Superfund Dredging Spreads Duwamish River Pollution."
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, June 10, 2004: "Duwamish Cleanup Spreads Pollutants."
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER September 11, 2003: "Tainted sludge wont go to Tacoma."
• TACOMA NEWS-TRIBUNE September 11, 2003: "Polluted muck won't be sent Tacoma's way."
• ASSOCIATED PRESS September 11, 2003: "Duwamish sludge bound for dump in Klickitat County."
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER August 20, 2003: "Tacoma leaders oppose EPA plan."
• TACOMA NEWS-TRIBUNE August 20, 2003: "City protests Seattle sludge."
• TACOMA NEWS-TRIBUNE August 17, 2003: "Tacoma no place for Seattle gunk, groups contend."
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER August 16, 2003: "Our Troubled Sound: Duwamish muck headed for Tacoma."

Boeing Plant 2

• July 25, 2010, "Facing demolition, Boeing Plant 2 gets fond farewell."
• May 4, 2010, "Boeing agrees to restore fish, bird habitat" Seattle Times.
• Seattle Times, January 13, 2010, "Wrecking Ball Looms for Historic Boeing Plant 2"

Air Toxins

• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, October 21, 2008: "South Seattle residents criticize cancer risk study"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, August 8, 2008: "'Alarming' elevated cancer risk in South Seattle linked to air pollution"

Habitat Restoration Projects

• April 22, 2010, "Duwamish Alive! 40th Anniversary of Earth Day," Green Acres Radio
• February 18, 2010, Seattle Channel's CityStream, featuring Neal Chism's trash-removal mission in the Duwamish and DRCC/TAG info about Superfund
• King-5, December 17, 2009: "Duwamish Fish Freeway gets Reststop"
• KBCS 91.7 FM "Green A.C.R.E." Radio, October 20, 2009 Host Martha Baskin interviews staff and volunteers from environmental organizations about restoring the Duwamish and Puget Sound.
• West Seattle Herald, "Duwamish Alive - Fall work day, October 17, 2009 preview"

Hamm Creek/Lost Fork

• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, March 15, 2009: "Mayor Accused of Reneging on Creek Repair"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, November 5, 2007: "City Council gives $400,000 to end wetlands feud"
• SEATTLE TIMES, August 30, 2007: "Groups, city spar over wetland fixes"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, March 6, 2007: "Council wants more wetlands; mayor refuses"
• SEATTLE TIMES, January 9, 2007: "City agrees to wetlands penalty"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, December 8, 2006: "Firefighter training missing 1 item: water"
• KING-5, December 8, 2006: "New firefighting facility barred from using water"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, December 1, 2005: "City will repair wetlands harmed by new complex: Standing his ground paid off for activist"

Environmental (in)Justice in the Duwamish Valley

• March 21, 2011, "Environmental Justice: An old idea with a new emphasis." Seattlepi.com
• March, 2011, "Color Blinded," Special Report from the American Prospect. Article titled, "Home Disadvantage" focuses on South Park Environmental Justice concerns.
• New York Times, "Clean Water Laws are Neglected, at a Cost of Suffering," September 13, 2009. Clean water laws are neglected, at a cost to health. In the past five years, companies and workplaces have violated pollution laws more than 500,000 times. But the vast majority of polluters have escaped punishment.
• SEATTLE TIMES, October 31, 2006: "Protesters denounce end of EPA program"
• SPOKESMAN REVIEW, October 31, 2006: "EPA cutbacks greeted with cynicism: groups say Office of Civil Rights and Environmental Justice gutted"
• TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE, October 31, 2006: "Protests greet region's new EPA official: 'the fox guarding the henhouse'"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, October 16, 2006: "EPA budget reduction could expose more minorities, poor to pollution"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, October 17, 2006: "Toxic Budgeting"

Contaminated Fish

• August 27,2010, "Contaminated Fish in the Duwamish River/Pescado Contaminados en el Rio Duwamish" La Raza del Nuestro Noroeste, #1 local Spanish-language newspaper. Program Manager Cari Simson is interviewed about the ongoing Duwamish Superfund cleanup process and fish consumption. Click here to view article.
• August 23, 2010, Paulina Lopez Peters, Bilingual Outreach coordinator with DRCC/TAG, was interviewed on "La Voz de Washington" on Radio KXPA AM 1540 about the Duwamish River cleanup and outreach to Latino families in S. Seattle. [Sorry, no archive available.]
• New York Daily News, "Fishing for Danger: Poor People Driven to catch and eat toxin-filled species," July 6, 2009.
• SEATTLE TIMES, August 4, 2005: "State: Don't eat fish from Duwamish"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, August 4, 2005: "Duwamish crab, fish are unsafe to eat, state warns"
• KING 5, August 3, 2005: "PCB warning issued for lower Duwamish crab, fish"
• KING 5, August 3, 2005: "Sound's salmon carry high PCB levels"

• SEATTLE TIMES July 12, 2002: "Fish in Duwamish Tainted, State Warns."

General Duwamish Articles:

• July 30, 2010, "Sen. Murray adds $3 Million to South Park Bridge," West Seattle Herald. Thea Levkovitz joins County Executive Constantine and US Senator Patty Murray for a tour of South Park regarding the bridge replacement over the Duwamish River Superfund cleanup site.
• February 17 and 22 Op/Ed articles in the Seattle Times, here and here, concerning the Washington State proposed cuts to the Department of Ecology budgets, and the effects on the Duwamish cleanup and restoration.
• KBCS 91.7 FM "Green A.C.R.E." Radio, January 14, 2010
  It's budget season at the state legislature and the environmental community has its work cut out for it. Steep cuts to core environmental protections including toxic clean ups, air quality and water supply are already underway. The environmental community is committed to stemming the tide in order to sustain key programs the public expects. Green Acre Radio's Martha Baskin has our story.
• ECOSS Blog, December 18,2009, "South Park Bridge Replacement Press Conference" Inspiring speech from Geoff Belau about the South Park Bridge and the community's relatinoship to it.
• West Seattle Herald, "Duwamish Fest Entertains" August 8, 2009
• West Seattle Blog, "Duwamish River Festival: from Fun to Superfund" August 9, 2009
• June 17, 2010, "Corporate Responsibility to the Environment," KUOW Radio, Weekday show includes Thea Levkovitz, DRCC/TAG, Peter de Fur, DRCC/TAG technical advisor, and Bob Warren from Department of Ecology talk about the Duwamish Superfund cleanup.
• April 15, 2010, "Sick Duwamish River Could Use Some Help," Seattle Sketcher column in the Seattle Times.
• KMPS 94.1FM "Good in the Neighborhood" July 12, 2009 radio interview
• KWJZ 98.9 FM Public Affairs Radio interview: "Duwamish River" July 5th, 2009. Thea Levkovitz and Secret Charles from CCEJ join Gary Shipe onair for an interview about the Duwamish River cleanup and environmental justice concerns.
  
• Examiner.com, May 19, 2009: "Duwamish River Rescue: Community Races to Save Seattle's Forgotten River"
• West Seattle Herald, May 15, 2009: "Hope, Hard Work ahead for Duwamish Cleanup Work"
• KBCS 91.3 FM: Green A.C.R.E. Radio Archives, April 16, 2009 edition "The Duwamish River Mess"
  Green A.C.R.E. Radio brings you the Agricultural,
  Conservation, Resource, and Environmental information you need, produced and reported by Martha Baskin. Green A.C.R.E. Radio airs every Thursday during One World Report around 6:20 p.m. and every Friday at 2 p.m. during Lunch with Folks
• URBAN ARCHIVES PROJECT, November 2008: "Port of Seattle - Duwamish Boat Tour 101, Part 2"
• URBAN ARCHIVES PROJECT, October 2008: "Port of Seattle -Duwamish Boat Tour 101"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, March 18, 2006: "Oil spill blamed on stormwater outfall"
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, DECEMBER 23, 2005: "Duwamish River doesn't stay clean"
• ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH VOICES, Fall 2004: "Superfund Basic Research Program Community Profile: Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition and BJ Cummings"
• DAILY JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, October 14, 2003: "Duwamish Cleanup Work Starting Soon."
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER November 22, 2002: "Our Troubled Sound: Many working to restore Puget Sound." (see subsection: 'Touring a PCB Hot Spot')
• TABLET July 25-August 7, 2002: "Down on the Duwamish: The effort to end the toxic pollution killing South Seattle's waterways."
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER June 24, 2002: "Kayakers observe a river of reality where cleanup efforts run upstream."
• SEATTLE WEEKLY May 2-8, 2002: "Duwamish Showdown: Citizens' group is keeping a wary eye on the river's cleanup."
• SEATTLE DAILY JOURNAL OF COMMERCE April 25, 2002: "Hot spots on summer agenda for Duwamish Superfund site."
• SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER Sept. 14, 2001: "Polluted Duwamish River listed as federal Superfund site."