Remember, our 19th annual Duwamish River Festival is taking place alongside SOPA SUPA on SAT 8/8/2026 at the Duwamish River Peoples’ Park and Shoreline Habitat - please consider volunteering or dropping by to celebrate Seattle’s one and only river (see more here).

Internally, the work may seem a lil less exciting to some, and yet is equally as important. We are looking forward to completing our first ever equitable and transparent staff compensation analysis in order to develop a pay practice and philosophy that continues to align with our organizational mission and values. We will be working more closely with various community partners, such as Dirt Corps, to start rehabilitating and activating our triangle property near the Duwamish River Peoples’ Park and Shoreline Habitat. Our hope is to have outdoor classrooms for our DVYC programming and Climate Resilience Hub design sessions on the land soon. Lastly, plans are well under way for our big 25th anniversary celebration with a boat party! Save the date for Saturday, October 3, 2026 as tickets will be available for purchase soon.

Hope to see y’all around on the Duwamish, around the river valley, and/or our upcoming summer events soon!

dana wu / 吳 淑 如

Director of Operations & Finance

ATTENTION!

The cleanup plan at the Crowley Marine site is up for public comment. This is a big one because it borders Gateway Park N, another contaminated area and Georgetown’s only public river access point. This cleanup should be comprehensive, permanent, and deeply consider environmental justice in an overburdened community. Consider submitting comments by June 9th or reply to this email with your thoughts!

Learn more below:

UPCOMING PUBLIC COMMENT PERIODS:

Starting Monday, June 1 – June 30, 2026, the Department of Ecology is holding public comment periods on TWO MORE Lower Duwamish Waterway cleanup sites: 

• Glacier Northwest, Inc.: A site study (called a remedial investigation) will be available for review and comment.

• • Location : 5900 W Marginal Way SW on banks of the Lower Duwamish Waterway in the Lower Reach.

  • Background : Contamination at the site is the result of historical uses and practices including manufacture of pentachlorophenol, glues and resins. Since the 1960s, the property has primarily been used as a cement storage and distribution terminal under various property owners and operators, and the southern portion of the property has been intermittently leased for equipment storage to other entities. The property has been owned by Glacier Northwest, Inc. since 1991.

  • Site Manager: Cliff Nale, (425) 725-0438

• Precision Engineering Inc.: A site study (called a remedial investigation) and options for cleanup (called a feasibility study) will be available for review and  comment.

• • Location : 1231 South Director Street in the Upper Reach of the Lower Duwamish Waterway.

  • Background : From 1968 to 2005, Precision Engineering, Inc. operated a metal-finishing shop on the property, performing hard-chrome plating, grinding, welding, and hydraulic cylinder work. Over the decades, leaks and spills from the plating tanks and solvent storage areas released chromium, trichloroethylene (TCE), and petroleum into the soil and groundwater beneath the building.

  • Site Manager : Arthur Buchan, (360) 628-4415

Want to help us put thoughts together? Reach out to alexandra@drcc.org!

In this month’s Community Advocacy meeting community members asked the question: How much do we know about airplanes and their impact on air pollution?

Airplanes have impacts on our health and pose a significant climate risk. However, that’s not the full picture.

DRCC’s low-cost air monitoring sensor network measures PM2.5 and PM10 (particles in the air that are 2.5 or 10 micrometers in diameter or less that worsen our health) and NO2 (smaller gas molecules that come from cars, trucks, and power plants that also worsen our health).

Our network does not measure ultrafine particles. Ultrafine particles are particles in the air that are .1 micrometers in diameter or less and they are emitted by cars and planes. Though airplanes pose significant risk to our health and climate by emission of a number of particles such as PM2.5, NO2, SO2 and CO2, our network does not measure their ultrafine particles (UFP) emission.

However, a recent study found that airplanes emit 14% of the UFP near the SeaTac Airport. Road traffic is an additional major source of UFPs outside of the airport area. These findings provide information on the blind spots that may arise from our network and begin to create a more holistic picture of our local airplane emissions.

Learn more about the SeaTac Airport at the Fix the Harm website, a campaign that focuses on improving airport impacts.

We have been working closely with the City of Seattle on its Comprehensive Plan to discuss the future of Duwamish Valley zoning, including in South Park and within the Greater Duwamish Manufacturing and Industrial Center (MIC). Currently, 92 percent of the MIC represents the heaviest industrial zone, and many areas go right up to people’s homes. The City has committed to better reflecting the true relationship between industry and residents by changing some heavy zoning areas to a transitional zone (called “Urban Industrial”) instead, which aims to cultivate lively neighborhoods with a blend of local manufacturing, production, arts, and a distinct sense of community, emphasizing more seamless connections between core industrial zones and nonindustrial areas. We are grateful to the City for revising their plan to better reflect the physical and social reality on the ground for our neighbors!

Interested in food security, youth mental health, noise pollution, or other climate justice topics? Reply to this email and we would love to chat with you about what you want to see at the state and local levels to create healthier communities and environments for all.

Stay tuned next month for updates on the Low Pollution Neighborhoods initiative - big things are happening in the Valley!

What about flooding advocacy?

DRCC is following up in our partnership with the University of Washington’s EDGE Center and the Living with Water project to embark on the Duwamish Valley Community Solutions After Flooding Empower Resilience or SAFER project. This project will result in a compilation and comparison of the many studies and plans for flood impacted communities developed by the County and City. This information has been requested many times over the past few years as a resource to help guide and determine advocacy for climate resilience.

Water career pilot project

Two+ years of working with Lake City Collective and Seattle Public Utilities (within a cohort of other Utility/community-based organization teams), supported by the US Water Alliance to develop a water career pathway pipeline has culminated in a May graduation ceremony!

Five young adults from the Duwamish Valley (and 5 from Lake City) just completed 6 weeks with Seattle Jobs Initiative, learning about careers at Seattle Public Utilities through the lens of the following themes: drinking water, drainage and wastewater, urban stream and salmon, Green Stormwater Infrastructure introduction, resiliency and community climate action, and job exploration.

We are so proud! All of the graduates intend to take the next step, an intensive six-month training course with the Seattle Opportunity Work Corps.

The DVYC Spring Cohort is almost complete!

As we near the end of our spring cohort, we have so much to look back on and be grateful for. Our cohorts have been busy doing restoration with Dirt Corps, learning about climate resilience with our YES team, creating amazing artwork with our Georgetown partners Laura Wright and Fedora Williams, and engaging in the community led by Carmen Martinez.

Duwamish Valley Youth Corps students have been learning so much about the Duwamish River and the many ways we are connected to this beautiful body of water through our partnership with Seattle Public Utilities. Their team has taught us all about how stormwater & wastewater can impact our local water bodies, and how simple everyday actions can make a big difference in keeping Seattle’s only river clean. Our youth corps students also had the opportunity to work with local seniors at the Arrowhead Gardens living community, when we came over to help tidy up and replenish their garden beds with fresh soil. We all had so much fun connecting and working together! The fun doesn’t end there, DVYC youth also had an opportunity to hike the West Duwamish Greenbelt with our partners at Ridge2River, stencil storm drains with Seattle Public Utilities, and of course - celebrate the grand opening of the South Park Community Center! We had a wonderful time marching in the parade and handing out flowers for Mother’s Day. We are overjoyed to have the community center back and better than ever!

And for those of you wondering: our fall applications will open in mid August with an orientation planned for Thursday September 10th, 2026.

SAVE THE DATE: AUGUST 8 2026