Duwamish River: ‘A fight well worth it’

Re: “Seattle’s polluted and neglected Duwamish River faces a new threat” and “After Afghanistan failure, what is America prepared to fight for now?” [Sept. 10, Opinion]:

Two recent Opinion pieces attracted my attention. The first had me speculating whether the Environmental Protection Agency had become the Environmental Pollution Agency, while the second offered a solution for both challenges.

After two decades of river recovery, in 2014 EPA pledged to finish the job, but recent lobbying by three major Seattle organizations, claiming to support the cleanup, has now persuaded the EPA that a significantly increased level of toxic, dangerous pollutants is OK.

So, is it too much to ask America to turn its energies from military action to declaring war on our own (prolific) polluted waterways? Wouldn’t that be a fight well worth it?

Those who fish the Duwamish to feed their families include many of the Duwamish whose ancestors have known these waters for generations. They are not ghosts of the past, but living, breathing people like us. Now, despite all they and others have done, they no longer have a river that once flowed clean and fresh. They have a Superfund site. Why? Because Seattle industries have dumped toxic waste and chemicals into it for decades and have little interest in finding better and cleaner ways to deal with it.

Lindsay P. Allen, Renton, on behalf of the Ohngwe Project