SEATTLE- The Emerald City makes lots of top ten lists but the most recent rankings isn't one that we'll likely be bragging about anytime soon. The Green/Duwamish River system ranks in the top ten of "America's Most Endangered Rivers" in the entire country for 2016. The report comes from environmental non-profit American Rivers. The organization ranks the ten rivers listed are under strain from growing water needs, human activity and the impacts of climate change.
The Washington DC based organization ranks the Green/Duwamish River as 5th in their rankings this year. The Green-Duwamish River flows from the Cascades north of Mt. Rainier, winding through farmland and through the industrial heart of Seattle, including the Port of Seattle before emptying into Elliot Bay. "Decades of pollution, floodplain development and harmful dam operations have taken their toll on the river and its salmon and steelhead runs," says the American Rivers report. "Two key actions this year can put the river on the rebound: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must build a long-delayed system for young salmon and steelhead to migrate downstream past a large dam, and governments at all levels must work collaboratively to manage the river for the benefit of salmon and communities."
American Rivers has been a vocal advocate for cleaner waterways for more than 40 years. The organization claims on their website that since 1973, they've protected and restored more than 150,000 miles of rivers through advocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects and their annual ranking of what they call the most troubled waterways in the country. They're not the first organization to call attention to the problems on this waterway. Due to 20th century industrial contamination, the lower 5 miles of the Duwamish was declared a Superfund site by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Source: American Rivers
The waterway, flanked by industrial corridors and the South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods, was added to the EPA's National Priorities List in 2001. According to the Duwamish Clean Up Coalition, "a century of heavy industrial use has left the waterway contaminated with toxic chemicals from many sources – industries along its banks, stormwater pipes, and runoff from upland activities, streets and roads. Pollution in the river sediments includes polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins/furans, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs), and arsenic. Many of these chemicals stay in the environment for a long time, and have built up to unsafe levels in resident fish and shellfish. Because of contamination, state and local health departments warn against eating crab, shellfish, or bottom-feeding fish from the Lower Duwamish River." They say eating salmon from this waterway is safe because they merely pass through the polluted water quickly. Both the EPA and the Washington Department of Ecology are working to clean up contaminated sediment and control sources of additional contamination in the waterway. Only three of the ten rivers listed in the American Rivers' in the western half of the country. And the Green-Duwamish is the only one listed in Washington State.
Here's a list of the top ten rivers on the non-profit's list and the biggest threat these waterways face.
The Green-Duwamish River as it flows through the heart of industrial Seattle. Photo: Ned Ahrens, American Rivers
#1: Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin: Alabama, Florida, Georgia | Threat: Outdated water management
#2: San Joaquin River: California | Threat: Outdated water management
#3: Susquehanna River: Pennsylvania & Maryland | Threat: Harmful dam operations
#4: Smith River: Montana | Threat: Mining
#5: Green-Duwamish River: Washington | Threat: Outdated dam and floodplain management and pollution
#6: Pee Dee River: North Caroline |Threat: Harmful dam operations
#7: Russell Fork River: Kentucky & Virginia | Threat: Mountain top removal mining
#8: Merrimack River: Massachusetts & New Hampshire | Threat: Polluted runoff
#9: St. Lawrence River: New York State | Threat: Harmful dam operations
#10: Pascagoula River: Mississippi & Alabama | Threat: New dams
To see the full American Rivers report:
http://www.americanrivers.org/blog/most-endangered-rivers-2016/
For more information on the superfund cleanup efforts:
http://duwamishcleanup.org/superfund-info/