Drafter
Clerk 04/16/2015
Title
A MOTION related to the Lower Duwamish waterway cleanup and the health of communities adjacent to the Lower Duwamish waterway.
Body
WHEREAS, the Green-Duwamish river flows from its source in the Cascade mountains and the foothills of Mount Rainer meandering through the Kent valley and the industrial lands of Tukwila and south Seattle before it empties into Seattle's Elliott Bay, and
WHEREAS, the last five miles of the river has served as a major conduit for shipping and receiving of materials and goods from around the northwest and was engineered and dredged over one hundred years ago to assist in the navigability of what is known as the Lower Duwamish waterway to serve the hundreds of businesses that have located along its banks, and
WHEREAS, over time industries along and around the waterway and development along the length of the river in urban areas have led to the degradation of the sediment quality and designation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the sediments in the last five miles as a Superfund site in need of cleanup, and
WHEREAS, local businesses and communities include tribal members, low-income, immigrant and refugee families who continue to live, work and fish along the Lower Duwamish waterway, and
WHEREAS, for the past fourteen years King County has been a participant in the Lower Duwamish Waterway Group ("LDWG") along with the city of Seattle, Port of Seattle and Boeing to investigate contamination in the Lower Duwamish waterway, develop approaches for cleanup of the waterway and means to prevent recontamination through source control, and
WHEREAS, LDWG has collectively spent approximately $40 million on the remedial investigation and the feasibility study to inform the Environmental Protection Agency's final Record of Decision for the Lower Duwamish waterway, and King County and the wastewater treatment division have spent approximately $5.8 million on Lower Duwamish waterway sou...
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