Established in 2001, the Duwamish River Community Coalition/TAG (DRCC/TAG) , also doing business as Duwamish River Community Coalition provides resources, knowledge, and action to build more just environmental futures. We work to elevate the voice of those impacted by the Duwamish River pollution and other environmental injustices for a clean, healthy, equitable environment for people and wildlife . We promote place-keeping and prioritize community capacity and resilience.
South Seattle’s Duwamish Valley has long been referred to as a community with environmental injustices—a community with disproportionately high environmental health burdens and risks and fewer positive environmental benefits than the rest of Seattle—but limited evidence has been available to date to validate or quantify this characterization. The Duwamish River Community Coalition represents an alliance of community, tribal, environmental, and small business groups affected by ongoing pollution and cleanup plans for Seattle’s lower Duwamish River, a 5.5-mile-long Superfund Site. The Duwamish Valley’s riverfront neighborhoods of South Park and Georgetown are home to residents who are among those most impacted by the Superfund Site, with potential exposures from contact with contaminated sediments on neighborhood beaches, swimming or wading in the river, and from fishing. South Park and Georgetown are among Seattle’s lowest-income neighborhoods, and South Park, in particular, is one of the city’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods. These factors combine to produce a community facing significant health, public safety, and economic disparities that require community advocacy and systemic investment to repair.
Environmental Justice Leader Spotlight
Paulina Lopez
Paulina has over 25 years of experience working on issues of civil rights, social environmental justice, equity, education and diversity. Paulina is keenly in tune with the strengths and challenges of this community as it moves toward environmental health and social and climate justice. Paulina highly regarded organizer, facilitator, community and policy strategist, movement builder focused on building systems of power and shifting power outward to those most impacted by injustice and oppression. Developed consulting with governments, organizations, community and foundations to identify ways to shift power dynamics, and develop frameworks for collaborative co- creating and transformative governance. Through this work and her leadership in social, environmental, and racial justice organizations, Paulina has developed expertise in multi-sector stakeholder engagement, networks, collaborative problem solving, and building power with BIPOC communities of color, immigrants, and refugees. Paulina emigrated to the U.S. from Ecuador and has made Seattle her home for the past 18 years. She first joined DRCC/TAG as a volunteer, advocating in her community for access to a safe, clean environment for South Park’s families. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights Law from St. Thomas University.
Jamie Hearn
Jamie was born and raised in Aiea, Hawaii, and moved to the Seattle area in 2018. She received her Bachelor’s in Environmental Science from UC Irvine and her Juris Doctorate from Seattle University School of Law. In the past, Jamie worked as an environmental and outdoor educator and spent her time in law school working for the Tulalip Tribal Court, Seattle University Domestic Violence Legal Clinic, American Indian Law Journal, Communities for a Better Environment, and The Nature Conservancy.
Jamie is excited to combine her passions for environmental justice, Indigenous rights, policy work, science, and community engagement in this role to uplift DRCC’s mission of elevating marginalized voices and creating a clean river for all. In her free time, Jamie enjoys spending time outdoors with her dogs, Roo and Mango, gardening, and reading.
Why is Duwamish River Community Coalition excited for WE ACT’s Justice40rward Community Tour to come to your community?
We are excited to share our community’s ongoing fight for environmental justice with federal and state officials and look forward to learning more about the ways that we can get critical funding into our neighborhoods after decades of disinvestment.
What should others know about environmental justice in your community?
Our community is 42% foreign-born, 40% Latino, and more than 70% people of color, including Asian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic, African American, and Native American. 71.7% of those in zip code 98108 are below 200% of the Federal Poverty Line, the highest percentage of any health reporting area in King County (American Community Survey, 2008-2012).
Life expectancy is eight years shorter in the Duwamish Valley than the City of Seattle and King County averages, and a full 13 years shorter when compared to more affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods in Seattle (Just Health Action and DRCC/TAG, 2013). In addition, these communities are exposed to environmental health concerns and inequities, including proximity to the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site (one of the most toxic hazardous waste sites in the nation), access to only 40 square feet of green space per resident versus an average 387 square feet per resident within Seattle City limits, and air pollution from a disproportionate number of polluting industries as well as surrounding major highways (State Highways 99 and 509, and Interstate 5).
What is your organization’s vision and mission?
Elevate the voice of those impacted by the Duwamish River pollution and other environmental injustices for a clean, healthy, equitable environment for people and wildlife. We promote place-keeping and prioritize community capacity and resilience.
Why is People For Community Recovery excited about the Justice40 Initiative?
We hope that Justice40 will bring long-awaited funding for community-led projects that will improve our quality of life and protect environmental and public health.
What are 3 projects you are working on with your community?
1. Affordable housing and place-keeping
In recent years the affordable housing crisis has hit our community very hard. Displacement is one of the top three concerns for community members, and as the River cleanup and more attention from the City continues, our low-income residents are being displaced at an alarming rate. DRCC/TAG is staffing a member of the Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition in order to support vulnerable community members. Lack of affordable housing and displacement of people of color and low-income residents are frequently linked with examples of environmental injustices being perpetrated on the same demographics. We see the correlation between the two and we have heard the community’s request for support.
2. EJ Community Center
The Duwamish Valley community has limited affordable and accessible community spaces because of a lack of infrastructure. This limits our ability to collaborate with other local organizations and the community at large to plan for climate resilience and environmental justice issues. Our community has a large youth population, and we need to create safe spaces for them to create community cohesion and well-being. The space could be used for job skills and training, cultural events, and serve as an emergency response hub as the consequences of climate change intensify, including flooding and sea-level rise, which we know will impact our communities the most.
3. Rising sea levels, storms, floods, and extreme precipitation
Located in close proximity to the Superfund and Combined Sewer Systems (CSO), such events lead to disproportionate exposure to contaminated floodwaters. It is estimated, 90% of sea level rise by 2100 in the Seattle area will occur in the Duwamish Valley. Currently, during high tide events, the river may overtop its banks, which prevents the South Park drainage system from draining into the river. Heavy rains worsen drainage issues and can also cause combined sewer capacity challenges (sewer backups). Sewer backups expose our communities to pathogens and contaminants and create serious health risks to families living along the river. DRCC is working with the City and County to update existing infrastructure and ensure that residents living along the river have safe and healthy homes.
What is a previous project or program that your organization is proud of achieving for your community?
Recent successes include getting the City to install grinder pumps into homes experiencing sewer back ups, installing HEPA filters at the local, dual-language elementary school where there are disproportionately high rates of childhood asthma, and successfully creating a campaign to get responsible parties for the Superfund cleanup to clean up cPAHs in the river to the original cleanup levels after they proposed weakening standards.
Community Solutions Snapshots – Duwamish River Community Coalition
EJ Community Center
The Duwamish Valley community has limited affordable and accessible community spaces because of a lack of infrastructure. This limits our ability to convene and collaborate with other local organizations and the community at large to plan for climate resilience and environmental justice issues. Our community has a large youth population and we need to create safe spaces for them to create community cohesion and well-being.
We aim to create a physical space for community members to serve as a Climate Resilience Hub and Youth Center. A climate resilience hub will serve as a place to share information about climate change preparedness, allow community based organizations to gather and stay connected through their resiliency work, and serve as an emergency response relief station and shelter during extreme weather events like flooding and heat waves, which are occuring with increasing frequency. Community members have repeatedly expressed their desire to have this type of space in South Park, where they know they can go when there are climate related emergencies. As we see local governments fail to plan for events like floods and extreme weather events in our community, providing our community with a hub is a top priority for DRCC.
Not only do we aspire to build a hub, but we aim to create an energy efficient, green hub that uses sustainable materials and construction practices to bring this type of structural innovation to a community that severely lacks infrastructure investment compared to the rest of the city. We envision community garden beds where youth and local residents can learn about sustainable food production, rain gardens, a living wall, and a vibrant and engaging facility that can also serve as a learning center about breaking environmental concepts and practices in energy conservation, green architecture, and water efficiency through the building itself.
Our Climate Resilience hub will be designed to coordinate culturally sensitive, multilingual services to better meet the needs of diverse groups of community members. In addition to the day-to-day benefits, the hub will provide a safe place for temporary shelter and relief during days of extreme heat, or operate as centers for distributing necessities such as food and multilingual information after disaster events such as floods. Year-round, they can offer space and programming for community-building efforts that increase resilience when emergencies occur.
Sewer Overflow
Rising sea levels, storms, floods, and extreme precipitation drive sewer overflow and are expected to worsen with the impacts of climate change. The community in the Duwamish Valley is located in close proximity to the Superfund and Combined Sewer Systems (CSO), which leads to disproportionate exposure to contaminated floodwaters and the related hazards. It is estimated 90% of sea level rise by 2100 in the Seattle area will occur in the Duwamish Valley. Currently, during high tide events, the river may overtop its banks, which prevents the South Park drainage system from draining into the river. Heavy rains worsen drainage issues and can also cause combined sewer capacity challenges (sewer backups). Sewer backups expose our communities to pathogens and contaminants and create serious health risks to families living along the river. DRCC is working with the City and County to update existing infrastructure and ensure that residents living along the river have safe and healthy homes.
Disinvestment in our community has led to our infrastructure being decades out of date, compared with other parts of the city. Every year during the rainy season, families in South Park experience sewer backups in their homes. A few years ago, some homes experienced sewage overflows with water levels climbing more than a foot up their walls, which forced families to leave their homes so contractors could properly clean them. Many of these families are low-income and/or BIPOC, and infrastructure improvements would create safer homes and reduce exposure to dangerous contaminants found in raw sewage.
Affordable housing and place-keeping
In recent years the affordable housing crisis has hit our community very hard. Displacement is one of the top three concerns for community members, and as the River cleanup and more attention from the City continues, our low-income residents are being displaced at an alarming rate. DRCC/TAG is staffing a member of the Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition in order to support vulnerable community members. Lack of affordable housing and displacement of people of color and low-income residents are frequently linked with examples of environmental injustices being perpetrated on the same demographics. We see the correlation between affordable housing and environmental justice because as our community disproportionately faces the burdens of climate change, they need access to safe and affordable housing in order to survive.
We aim to keep folks in the Duwamish Valley, where they feel connected to and supported by the community. Many residents in our community have been here for generations and for some, the Duwamish Valley has been their home after immigrating from their home country. Access to housing creates access to opportunities and resources, provides stability and security, and is a large key to reducing intergenerational poverty and increasing economic mobility. Families with access to affordable housing can invest more in their families and spend their resources on essential needs, like food, clothing, and health care.
