Kirk & Chelsea
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While the Portland Harbor and the Lower Duwamish are both parts of rivers with superfund sites, the concerns and approaches for cleanup, and processes seem very independent of one another. The Lower Duwamish River cleanup seemed to be centered around a community with a history of advocating for change, justice and equity. From our visits to the Duwamish site,it seemed that community members were well informed and engaged in the process, the needs of the community being healthy place to live through removal of the contaminated soil by dredging and transporting it off site to be processed. Versus Portland's approach seems quite different in that the community seems less involved in the process, it seems like much community engagement has not occurred. Many people I have interacted with have no idea there is a superfund site in Portland, let alone the various methods being debated in the EPA’s cleanup proposal. While our classes visit to Port of Portland's Terminal 4 was eye opening to the industrial activity along the Willamette. Surveys suggest that still most of the general population “has little knowledge or information about the Port and its marine terminal operations,” (Abbott, 2008) furthermore assuming that there is little awareness about the superfund site and legacy contamination that has occurred on the river. I think the unawareness from Portland Citizens has hindered the process or push for stringent regulation and cleanup. I think if more of the community knew about the superfund site, the hazards they would be more concerned, but the lack of public engagement has left many unknowing. Some of my thoughts on some the possible reasons for differences in cleanup may include Seattle is very much built on and around industry, community's and industrial areas commonly intersect, whereas Portland also has a lot of industry but it is more segregated from residential areas. -Katie Carl Abbott. Portland's Working Rivers: The Heritage and Future of Portland's Industrial Heartland. Portland: Carl Abbott, 2008. Print. Photo from: https://popdevprogram.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/in-this-for-my-people-nia-robinson-on-race-the-environment-and-climate-change/ Environmental racism has a long history in the United States with wealthy white people in well-cared-for areas of cities and countrysides, while wastes are dumped and toxic industrial facilities sited along the homes of people of color and poor people (whom are more often people of color). Firstly, planners are often white and perpetuate this divide, not wanting a landfill or chemical refinery next to their homes. Second, it is known that wealthy, more highly educated neighborhoods of white people feel empowered to fight against any development in their area that would negatively impact them. As a result, attempts toward such developments are not even considered. People of color in this country have been oppressed by systematic racism in every form from every authoritative agency and have been disempowered to fight for their own civil rights. Environmental racism is about civil rights--“It is unlikely that this nation will ever achieve lasting solutions to its environmental problems unless it also addresses the system of racial injustice that helps sustain the existence of powerless communities forced to bear disproportionate environmental costs” (Geiser and Waneck 1983).
The environmental movement started in the 1970s and environmental activists are often well-educated white people focused on environmental conservation. For years a strong part of my own identity has centered on environmental conservation. While I have slowly become more aware of environmental justice issues, the focus of my activism has remained on conservation of forested lands and watersheds. I realize the privilege I have to choose my activism focus--being middle-class and white, I am not directly affected by environmental risks and inequalities that so many people of color and poor people cannot escape. I appreciate the opportunity to increase my awareness of environmental justice issues and the inseparable nature of social justice, environmental justice, and environmental conservation. -Lola Goldberg References: Geiser K and Waneck G 1983. PCBs and Warren County. Science for the People pp 13-17. Environmental racism is the concept that has come to show the ways in which people of color are negatively affected by environmental toxicity as a result of pollution and institutional racism. Non-white people are disproportionately poisoned at higher rates than whites, regardless of economic status. Not only that, but non-white neighborhoods are actually targeted by industries and institutions for waste dumping or incinerators based on the fact that people of color tend to have less political/social power. Therefore they’re less likely to successfully fight against these institutions. Additionally, they are less likely to move away from the harmful areas due to racial tensions, economic status, and racial discrimination. Environmental Justice is the movement that has been fighting to reduce pollution and protect people and the environment and has wanted to bring a racial equity lens to the movement. The article “PCB’s and Warren County” describes the progression leading up to a toxic waste dump being built in Warren County despite the protests of the residents. The main issues were that when PCB resale was banned by the government, an irresponsible company illegally dumped thirty-thousand gallons of PCB fluids on about 270 miles in North Carolina. The state decided to build a dump to store the contaminated soil indefinitely and they picked Warren County as their location. The residents of that county learned that there was little protection for their drinking water for when the contaminated soil would begin to leach into the ground, so they staged a large protest where about 500 people were arrested. This event marked history and set the tone for how important civic participation is in cases against industry giants and the governments. The citizens of Warren County weren’t successful in stopping the dump site, however they gained respect from the state and their concerns were taken into account, which lead to water and health monitoring of the area. The issues at Warren County constitute institutional racism because the state and EPA probably thought that poor neighborhood, which was comprised of over 65% Black residents, wouldn’t have much to say. Not only that, but the dump was built anyway, despite the intense protests. I do believe that class was a much larger element in this particular case given that a large part of the population was white and they fought just as hard against the state on the issue because they would be equally impacted by the PCB's and pollution. You can watch a documentary about the Warren County case using the link below. In the Duwamish River clean-up effort, there are certainly issues of environmental justice because the people most negatively impacted by the pollution and the polluted river are Native Americans, Asian, and the Latino Population of Seattle. There are many cultural , educational, and language barriers to public participation, which is the reason why the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition has worked so hard to include voices from those residents who would otherwise go unheard and unseen. They’ve been successful at making an impact in regards to the effectiveness of the clean-up and keeping the county and the businesses accountable. One possible issue I see with the Portland Harbor in regards to environmental justice is that it is believed that some residents, particularly poorer or homeless residents, use fishing as a food source in the polluted river. This poses a major health risk because the fish are not safe to eat and yet they may have an economic need to use this as a main protein source. There are other social issues to consider –for example, there are hundreds of new residents in the Portland area and they may not be well informed about the pollution and costs of cleanup of the Portland Harbour. Portland is a home to many refugees of many parts of the world who may not speak English well enough to stay informed and participate as an interested resident. Their knowledge and community ties may be limited. It is important to actively seek these folks out, like they did in Seattle, so that their voices and ideas can be heard as well. - Gloria This week, our readings focused on environmental justice, how it was used in Warren County, and how it may pertain to the Duwamish River and Portland Harbor superfund sites. Environmental racism is a way to describe the institutionalized system in which people of color are more likely to be exposed to environmental and health risks (Bullard, 1993). Environmental justice movement calls for equal protection and fair treatment for all against environmental and health risks, focusing on people of color and low-income communities (Gilliland, 2014). We focused on a case study in Warren County, North Carolina, where the state was interested in dumping PCB laden soil in a secure landfill in Warren County (Geiser & Waneck, 1983). This contributed to the issue of environmental racism since the county was the poorest county in the state, and also 65% black (Geiser & Waneck, 1983). As stated by “Warren County Citizens Concerned about PCBs” leader Ken Ferruccio: “landfills are placed in environmentally unsafe, but politically powerless areas (Geiser & Waneck, 1983).” The community laid down in the middle of the street to stop trucks from dumping PCBs in their neighborhood--the first-ever environmental justice protest by people of color that gained national attention (Geiser & Waneck, 1994). This protest was also the first time where the term “environmental racism” was used (Geiser & Waneck, 1994). Here’s a video of the protest: The work of community members of Warren County led to recognition by President Bill Clinton, who issued an executive order requiring the consideration of environmental justice issues in the course of federal agency policy making (Gilliland, 2014). The approaches to environmental justice by agencies have varied, but the actions taken at the Duwamish River Site are seen as groundbreaking and used as a reference for other CERCLA sites (Gilliland, 2014). Even so, EPA’s environmental justice analysis strongly suggested additional mitigation measures to counter adverse disproportionate impacts felt by communities reliant on the river for subsidence (Gilliland, 2014).
-Kristen Citations: Bullard, R. D. (1993). Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots. Cambrige, MA: South End Press. Geiser, K., & Waneck, G. (1983). PCBs and warren county. Science for the People, 15(4), 13-17. Geiser, K., & Waneck, G. (1994). PCBs in Warren County. Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. Gilliland, A. (2014) A Review of EPA’s First Environmental Justice Analysis in Conjunction with a CERCLA Remediation Plan. Retrieved fromhttp://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/events/environment_energy_resources/2014/03/43rd-spring-conference/conference_materials_portal/12-gilliland_alexandra-paper.authcheckdam.pdf Environmental justice seeks to establish more equitable mitigation and dispersion of the negative environmental impacts that have historically plagued lower income people and people of color. In Warren County North Carolina, the community rallied together to oppose a landfill that would bring enormous amounts of PCBs into the area. As the poorest county in the state, the community felt they were being targeted because of their lack of resources to oppose the landfill. As Gerald Waneck points out, Warren County was selected for political, not scientific reasons as the water table in the county is very close to the surface. This poses a serious risk to human health because “landfills inevitably leak." The community was further inspired to protest when they discovered that they would be housing multiple sources of industrial waste in the future in their area if the landfill were constructed. Though they were not able to stop the landfill, in the end the community proved that they would not simply roll over. Communities of color have disproportionately been “experimented on” as Ken Ferruccio is quoted saying in the reading. The story of Warren County is one more example clear environmental racism. In the case of the Duwamish River and the Portland Harbor the environmental justice issues center around race as well. At both Superfund sites Native Americans and other communities of color use the rivers as a source of fish for food. Fish consumption is the primary route for contaminants to affect people and these populations are much more likely to consume unsafe levels of fish. It is especially concerning that none of the cleanup techniques would allow the communities that use the river for fishing to do so as they wish safely. The environmental justice EPA review paper describes the proposed alternatives to ensuring the fish are safe to eat. The suggestions essentially entail the informing of minority populations that the fish are unsafe and assisting them in finding alternative sources of fish and other food. If the solutions in the Duwamish and Willamette rivers do not take care to ensure the protection of indigenous and minority communities while allowing them to participate in cultural activities they will join the long list of environmentally racist practices that further the inequality that these communities already experience. -Kirk Gilliland, A. (2014) A Review of EPA’s First Environmental Justice Analysis in Conjunction with a CERCLA Remediation Plan. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/events/environment_energy_resources/2014/03/43rd-spring-conference/conference_materials_portal/12-gilliland_alexandra-paper.authcheckdam.pdf Waneck, G. (1983). PCBs and Warren County. Science for the People. Retrieved fromhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gerald_Waneck/publication/244483263_Special_w ater_issue_PCBs_and_Warren_County/links/00b7d51d3baae218ad000000.pdf?origin=publication_detail 10:30 AM: We met with Linda Dombrowski, an anthropologist and member of the Duwamish tribe. She told us about the early settling of Seattle, and how the Duwamish were displaced from their lands. As the area changed to residential land, then to industrial, the river that the Duwamish people depended on became polluted. The most resonating statement that Linda made was that the Duwamish are not looking for complete restoration of the river, but are looking for community support and to use the best available practices to keep people safe. Photo below of Linda Dombrowski. 12:00 PM: We walked across the highway from the Duwamish Longhouse to Herring House Park, which offers views of the Duwamish. We met with BJ Cummings, who helped found the Duwamish River Community Coalition. The coalition consists of many organizations that had been working on trying to get cleanup to happen for many years, the longest standing being the Duwamish people. The coalition first worked as a watchdog organization of preliminary cleanup along the river. With their help, the Port of Seattle learned about the re-contamination introduced by sewer overflow and an inefficient dredging process. Throughout the process of planning, cleanup, and restoration, the influence of the DRCC has lead to an increase in community involvement planning. One thing I appreciated from DRCC was the commitment to not only provide daycare for children of parents involved in meetings, but also involving the children in the decision-making process. In Arnstein’s A Ladder of Citizen Participation (1969), providing child care and reimbursement for missed work to attend meetings is on a higher rung of citizen participation. Using Arnstein’s guide, DRCC may classify as a partnership style of citizen participation, since DRCC shares their findings and influences the Port of Seattle and EPA (1969). Photo below of BJ Cummings at Herring House Park. 1:45 PM: We headed to one of the hottest restaurants in South Park, Napoli Pizza, to meet with Julie Congdon, and other representatives from the City of Seattle and Port of Seattle. Julie is currently in the process of revising the Duwamish River Superfund Community Involvement Plan. Her colleagues shared with us how important it has been to have DRCC’s influence on the cleanup process. They also shared their community engagement process for South Park residents for Terminal T117, which we were able to tour. I was happy to hear the process was very community driven, with Roy commenting that “if you communicate, the community responds positively.” DRCC gave guidelines to the City of Seattle on what levels of community engagement they should aim for. Photo below of our class on the tour of T117. 4:00 PM: We head to the South Park Community Center to talk with Paulina Lopez and two of her Youth Corps Members. Paulina is the Community Engagement and Outreach Manager for DRCC. We went on a walking tour of South Park, and learned some of the downsides to when entities try to do work without communicating with the community. An example of this would be the skatepark we saw, that was built by a private donor without the community’s feedback (seen in some of my classmates posts). The park soon became covered in graffiti and unusable to skate. We headed to Muy Macho after the tour for some great food.
7:00 PM: Our last destination before heading to our AirBnb for the night was the South Park Senior Center for karaoke night! Overall, it was a long day of learning. We heard from multiple stakeholders about the importance of community engagement. I’m glad to be involved with Portland Harbor Community Coalition, and plan to learn more about how community engagement is happening around the Portland Harbor Superfund Site. -Kristen References: Sherry R. Arnstein (1969) A Ladder Of Citizen Participation, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35:4, 216-224, DOI: 10.1080/01944366908977225 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 We began our journey at the Duwamish Longhouse, this area of waterfront was the site of long houses along the shoreline where the tribe used to fish. Now we look out at the cleanup efforts and industrial uses The Community Engagement and Outreach Manager for the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, Paulina Lopez gave us a tour of her community in Southpark. A skatepark was built in attempt to help the community but is now seldom used because the graffiti has made the concrete too slippery to skate on. Stepping out of the skate park a mural that says “home” in 5 different languages representing the major demographics that comprise the Southpark community.
"White settlers came to the Seattle area in 1851, establishing a townsite they first called New York, and then, adding a word from the Chinook jargon meaning "by-and-by," New York-Alki.” -Seattle Municipal Archives
Discovering Seattle's deep history of industry, economic and community development put into perspective the complex issues revolving around development in both long and short term thinking. This past weekend I could see clearly how the past is still very present in today's world. The Duwamish River was a great example of this continued impact, for example the profound injustices demonstrated by the commandeering of the Duwamish tribe's land, to the negative effect the Superfund site has had on the health and safety of South Park's citizens. Although people have tried to control, utilize or tame the waters of the Duwamish, the problems morphed into systemic problems that possibly stemmed from the rivers complex history. -Katie Brief History of Seattle. Retrieved from http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/seattle-facts/brief-history-of-seattle This article told the story of Rob Bilott, an attorney who usually defended large chemical companies, taking a stance against DuPont (Rich, 2016). He was fighting them over a chemical called Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), found to have negative health effects on humans (Rich, 2016). Bilott fought an uphill battle over 16 years to have DuPont cease production of PFOA and pay for the harm they had caused (Rich, 2016). Now, DuPont is settling personal injury lawsuits at a rate of four cases a year, and they have ceased production of PFOA in 2013 (Rich, 2016). PFOA is a chemical found in teflon, a material used to coat pots and pans (Rich, 2016). This reading was especially jarring for me since I had just recycled some non-stick pots and pans earlier that week because the teflon coating was chipping off.
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AuthorsWe are Portland State students who care about the urban rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Archives
May 2018
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