Photo by Lola Goldberg
We had the opportunity to visit with representatives from many of the groups involved in the Lower Duwamish River Superfund site. The Duwamish river has a similar history to that of the Willamette--for thousands of years it was central to the lives of the native peoples of these lands--in this case the Duwamish tribe who spent their winters along its banks. The Duwamish people subsistence fished the river and travelled by canoe along its meandering course. After Chief Seattle of the Duwamish signed the treaty of 1855 allowing the City of Seattle to be built on their homeland, the river was straightened, deepened, and industrialized. The Duwamish river became a transportation hub for large ships and over the past century, a waste tank for wartime industry and rapid development that grew up around it. We visited the Duwamish Longhouse--a beautiful community center for the tribe to share their culture and history. The Duwamish tribe has been asserting their place in this landscape, having lived here for at least 12,000 years, according to Linda Dombrowski, the event coordinator who shared many tales of Duwamish history and of the river just across the street. Although the Duwamish community has their own visions for the river, they are willing to share the water and the land that contains it with their industrial neighbors. This surprised me. They only expect that the river be cleaned up so that all people’s needs for the river are possible, including fishing for subsistence. It’s not an easy task, but some assert it’s possible. We met B.J. Cummings, the founding coordinator of the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC) in 2001, to empower residents of South Park and Georgetown--the neighborhoods within the industrial sea along the Duwamish river. B.J. is a wealth of knowledge. She explained that Lake Washington was formerly the site of the City’s sewage dump, but after the affluent and largely white neighborhoods surrounding the lake complained, the City rerouted the sewage system to dump into the lower Duwamish river. Many communities have come together as very active agents influencing the process and plan for cleanup of the the superfund site. When we met with employees of the City of Seattle, the Port of Seattle, and the Environmental Protection Agency, they credited the DRCC and expressed gratitude for their persistent involvement pushing for stronger cleanup outcomes. Boeing, apparently did very well cleaning up their early action areas, using sophisticated technology to dredge contaminated river sediment without causing a spread of the contaminants. Using Boeing’s good example as well as documenting when dredging was poorly done for far less money, the DRCC continues to push for better cleanup methods. While communities of South Park have been highly vocal and active influencing stronger river cleanup, these low income communities--often communities of color--have not gotten the level of response that communities around Lake Washington received. Politics that govern cities have systematically left low income communities out of planning processes and adequate consideration. In “A Ladder of Citizen Participation,” Arnstein articulates the reason for citizen participation in processes affecting our public commons as a redistribution of power- giving voice to people so often excluded from the process (Arnstein 1969). This article was published in 1969 and yet still today citizen participation is often a box for government officials to check rather than fully listening and changing plans or designs based on feedback from the public- people who will be greatly affected by the decisions made. Furthermore, government rarely does outreach to underrepresented communities. Because of the strong and determined involvement by the DRCC and people of South Park, this dynamic may be slowly shifting for Seattle, however there is still a long way to go. -Lola Goldberg Sherry R. Arnstein (1969) A Ladder Of Citizen Participation, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35:4, 216-224, DOI: 10.1080/01944366908977225
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AuthorsWe are Portland State students who care about the urban rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Archives
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