Back to Duwamish Waterway Programs

Coming Soon to Your Community
How you can take part in helping the Duwamish run toward a brighter future!

Everyone in the community can help protect the Duwamish by learning ways to prevent pollution from reaching its waters. And at the same time, you can enhance your home, yard and the environment for your family and neighbors.

Thanks to a united effort of government, community groups and businesses, the Duwamish Waterway now flows cleaner through Seattle's major industrial area to Elliott Bay and Puget Sound. The effort is leading to a healthier environment for people, fish and wildlife.

Agencies and organizations prepare their informational booths for a busy day at the Duwamish River Festival

Upcoming Events

Fourth Annual Duwamish River Festival

Saturday August 23, 2008
Duwamish Waterway Park
7900 10th Avenue South in the South Park neighborhood

Connecting Communities for a Healthy Duwamish

Free family-friendly environmental festival featuring updates on the Duwamish River Superfund cleanup. Includes live entertainment, water taxi rides, food, children's activities, kayak tours, health information, natural yard care tips, and more!

>> back to top

Past Events

• Duwamish Alive! Earth Day 2008, April 19, 2008

Duwamish Alive! Earth Day 2008

Saturday April 19, 2008, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Braving Saturday's cold, wet conditions while battling invasive weeds and gathering truckloads of trash, hundreds of dedicated volunteers working together made the Duwamish River a healthier place for fish and wildlife, and people, too.

The volunteers, including King County Executive Ron Sims, were taking part in Duwamish Alive!, an annual event that's part work, part celebration, and all in honor of one of King County's largest waterways.

“On-the-ground habitat protection and restoration efforts such as Duwamish Alive! are an essential part of our ongoing work to make this river whole again,” Sims said. “Seeing this level of commitment first-hand, I am confident that we will succeed in healing the Duwamish River.”

Eight separate habitat restoration sites within the Duwamish watershed were rehabilitated. In addition to picking up garbage and ripping out invasive plants, volunteers further improved habitat by planting thousands of native trees. Sites included:

• West Duwamish Greenbelt
• Longfellow Creek
• Duwamish Waterway Park
• Gateway Park North/8th Ave. S.
• Codiga Farms Park
• Duwamish Riverbend Hill Park
• Hamm Creek: (In 2000, King County , together with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created 1,900 feet of new productive riparian stream bed and channel for Hamm Creek at this site. The Elliott Bay/Duwamish Restoration Program is responsible for the design and monitoring of a one-acre estuarine marsh with a fish-passable connection to the Duwamish Waterway. The enhanced freshwater Hamm Creek channel features meanders, fish pools, and large wood debris. Over the years, many individuals and organizations have worked together to help restore and enhance this site .)

The Duwamish River is home to a large population of federally protected chinook salmon and other salmon species, plus birds, mammals and other fish and wildlife.

Coastal America 2007 Partnership Award: Also that day nearly two dozen participating Duwamish Alive! partners, including government agencies, community groups and corporations, received the Coastal America 2007 Partnership Award, the highest honor the federal government gives to such groups for efforts to protect, preserve and restore America's coastal heritage.

Duwamish Alive! partners received the award for identifying a critical community need, developing key partnerships, and for involving the community through environmental stewardship and community involvement in their work to protect and restore the river.

King County has worked for decades to restore the Duwamish and Elliott Bay – to restore habitat, improve water quality and cleanup contaminated sediments. The county has invested more that $250 million to date and committed an additional $170 million to pay for cleanups, CSO control projects, monitoring and restoration efforts that are returning the Duwamish to health.

Information about the Coastal America Partnership is available at http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/partnerships/ (external link).

Duwamish Alive! is organized and supported by the following citizen groups and government agencies:

Cascade Land Conservancy, City of Seattle, City of Tukwila, Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, EarthCorps, Edwards Mother Earth, Elliott Bay Restoration Panel, Environmental Coalition of South Seattle, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Friends of Duwamish Riverbend Hill, Green/Duwamish and Central Puget Sound Watershed Forum of Local Governments, Green-Seattle Partnership, Georgetown Community Council, IM-A-PAL Foundation, King County, King Conservation District, Longfellow Creek Watershed Council, Nature Consortium, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, People For Puget Sound, Port of Seattle, REI, Restore America's Estuaries, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Veterans Conservation Corps., Washington State Department of Ecology

>> back to top

For questions about the Wastewater Treatment Division Web site, please send an e-mail message.

Updated: June 10, 2008
 

Related Information:
King County Environmental Links

Yard and Garden Topics