Seattle’s Duwamish Valley, with its 5.5-mile-long Superfund site, is considered one of the most highly polluted areas in the country. Experts have documented 150 years of ecological destruction, human anguish and health problems, as political and business leaders systematically converted a naturally flourishing Duwamish River into an industrialized waterway that became a powerful hub of commerce.
Despite a toxic legacy of massive proportions, communities have endured among the industrial facilities. Area residents have shown a remarkable resilience, and in recent years a renewed sense of optimism has emerged. Government leaders have become part of an awakening conscience and growing commitment to make things better. Duwamish residents now provide an example of how people can come together to formulate a strategy for vanquishing pollution and strengthening the heart of a community.
“It took leadership to build the industrial area,” acknowledges James Rasmussen, a member of the Duwamish Tribe who has been a key player in the community revival, “but now we have to show a new kind of leadership. We have to make sure that we set a high standard.”
Rasmussen, who directed the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition for eight years, provides a practical and spiritual voice. By setting a high standard for cleanup and never giving up, he believes the people will one day breathe the air, eat the fish and enjoy living in the area without worrying about their health. People can make a difference, he says, not only in the Duwamish Valley but in every polluted area in the Puget Sound region.
While it is impossible to turn back the clock on health problems already experienced by people living or working near toxic sites, a commitment to environmental justice involves treating all people fairly while eliminating threats of pollution and considering disparities in race, income and other historical inequities.
Duwamish history
From the very beginnings of Seattle in the 1850s, business leaders viewed the Duwamish River as more than an immediate conduit for farm products, lumber, fish, coal and other natural resources brought down from upstream areas. They set their sights on worldwide commerce and a future harbor that could service the largest ships ever built. By 1913, Seattle leaders were putting into action a plan to create an industrial waterway.
Two communities — Georgetown and South Park — were growing up alongside Seattle to support a growing population and a commercial base. Residents of the wider Duwamish Valley included members of the Duwamish Tribe, who had resisted efforts to displace them from their ancestral home and place them on reservations elsewhere in Puget Sound. Despite thousands of years of attachment to these lands and waters, the tribe was never allowed its own reservation nor officially recognized as a governing entity.
By 1900, Georgetown was an established community, home to Seattle Brewing and Malting Co., the origins of Rainier Beer. It became the service headquarters for the Seattle Tacoma Interurban Railway, with electric streetcars running between Everett, Seattle and Tacoma. The Seattle Race Course, built in 1869, attracted visitors from throughout the region and led to other adult-entertainment businesses. By 1903, seven saloons were in operation along with five grocery stores and four churches, according to historian David Wilma. Brewery and transportation workers included immigrants from Germany and Belgium.
Voters chose to incorporate Georgetown in 1904 rather than allow a shutdown of area saloons under a new state law prohibiting liquor licenses within a mile of an incorporated city. The town’s businesses continued to flourish along with industrial growth along the waterway. The population grew from 1,913 in 1900 to about 7,000 in 1910, when Georgetown — with 24 saloons at the time — was annexed into Seattle by popular vote.
Meanwhile, South Park, across the river and southwest of Georgetown, had been growing as a farming community, including a mill, livery stable and various stores. Italian and Japanese farmers sold their products locally until 1907, when they began selling directly to consumers at Seattle Public Farmer’s Market on Pike Place in Seattle. South Park, which became a city in 1905, was soon annexed into Seattle in 1907, when the population was 1,500.
October 1913 marked the beginning of a massive public-works project that would forever change the nature of the Duwamish River and its nearby communities. A new 132-foot-long dredge named Duwamish No. 1 was constructed for the job. For the next seven years, the steam-powered dredge, along with steam shovels and dragline excavators, cut away the riverbanks and carved out a new 4.5-mile-long channel renamed the Duwamish Waterway. Nine miles of meandering river were erased to form a straight-edged, deep-water port with turnaround bays for large ships.