SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has unveiled 11 options for cleaning Seattle’s most polluted waterway, the Duwamish River.
The Seattle Times reports that the choices range in estimated cost from $220 million to $1.3 billion, and in duration from four years to more than four decades. They call for dredging and removing nearly 300 acres of toxic sediments, capping pollutants with rock, letting nature take its course, or some mix of all three.
But those most closely tied to the cleanup say that after decades of industrial pollution, the Duwamish is unlikely to ever be pristine. Anglers will still be advised to avoid regularly eating certain fish.
That’s a concern for neighborhood groups that have spent years complaining that their blighted river doesn’t seem to receive the same attention as others. They say that even if the Duwamish is 90 percent cleaned up, it could still pose health risks for low-income, immigrant and tribal people who fish there.
