Working on the Duwamish

09/27/2007

Between tech business, aerospace and coffee, it can be easy to forget that Seattle is one of the largest ports on the west coast. In today's segment of Life on the Duwamish, producer Jessica Partnow asks 'Is Seattle still a city with a blue collar soul?'

THIS IS THE SOUND OF THE DUWAMISH.

THIS IS A BUSY PLACE. HEADING SOUTH FROM HARBOR ISLAND ALONG THIS WIDE CHANNEL, YOU SEE CEMENT FACTORIES, SHIPYARDS AND DRYDOCKS, METAL RECYCLING AND WAREHOUSES. YOU PASS UNDER THREE MAJOR BRIDGES. IF A SHIP IS UNLOADING AT THE PORT, YOU'LL SEE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF CARGO SHUTTLING BACK AND FORTH ON TALL CRANES.

WHEN I FIRST STARTED SPENDING TIME ALONG THE DUWAMISH, IT ALL LOOKED SORT OF UGLY TO ME. BIG PILES OF METAL THAT HAVE BEEN SITTING THERE FOR DECADES. HUGE SHIPS BELCHING BLACK SMOKE INTO THE AIR AS THEY CHUG UP AND DOWN THE RIVER. COMPANIES WITH NAMES LIKE CHEMITHON. THE WHOLE PLACE FELT INACCESSIBLE AND MEAN, UGLY AND LOUD. BUT THEN I STARTED TALKING TO PEOPLE WHO WORK ALONG THE RIVER.

WALKER: "You know it's generally 99 percent boredom and 1% sheer terror. Hahaha!"

JOHN WALKER OPERATES THE SOUTH PARK BRIDGE. IT'S A DRAWBRIDGE THAT GOES INTO SOUTH PARK FROM EAST MARGINAL WAY. THE SOUTHERNMOST BRIDGE ON THE DUWAMISH THAT CAN ALLOW LARGE VESSELS THROUGH.

WALKER: "So you flip this switch, sirens start going off, the lights start flashing and stuff. Hit the horn a few times [horn]. Only you'd do that more. Yeah, every bridge has a signal, ours is long–short–long."

IN THE SUMMERTIME HE SEES A FEW PLEASURE BOATS. BUT ALL YEAR LONG HE HAS COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC PASSING UNDER HIS BRIDGE, BRINGING MATERIALS TO AND FROM THE MANY BUSINESSES THAT LINE THE RIVER.

PARTNOW: "What would you say is your favorite part about this job?"

SMITH: "Favorite part? Actually operating the bridge I just sort of like to work the bridge, it's like I get to play with the biggest toy in the world."

SMITH: "My name is Rob Smith, I'm the operations manager here at Independent Metals. I grew up on this river."

I TALKED TO ROB JUST OUTSIDE HIS BUSY WAREHOUSE IN SOUTH PARK. WE CAN SEE ALL THE WAY OUT TO THE DOCK THROUGH THE BUILDING'S OPEN DOORS.

SMITH: "We make big metal into little metal. All we do is we cut it up into smaller pieces for export. We're a recycling company."

A GIANT METAL CLAW IS GRABBING TANGLED PIECES OF SCRAP METAL FROM ONE JUMBLED PILE AND TOSSING THEM INTO ANOTHER.

SMITH: "We provide jobs for people, we try our best to pay good wages for our employees, and that's what's important to us. If I take care of them, they take care of me."

BUT HENRY LEIBMAN HAS A NEW VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRIAL SOUTH SEATTLE. AND IT DOESN'T INCLUDE MOST OF THE DIRTY STUFF.

LEIBMAN: "We think that this area could be a hub for more modern industries, R&D oriented, engineering oriented, tech. Which is what Seattle is. This is a city full of engineers of various persuasions."

HE'S SITTING IN HIS SECOND STORY OFFICE IN SODO. HE'S BUSY SIGNING CHECKS AS WE TALK. HENRY IS THE SECOND LARGEST PROPERTY OWNER IN SEATTLE. HIS COMPANY, AMERICAN LIFE INC., IS DEVELOPING A SWATH OF LAND STRETCHING FROM SPOKANE STREET TO THE STADIUMS. HE ENVISIONS BUILDING NEW CORPORATE CAMPUSES AND OFFICE BUILDINGS.

MOST OF HENRY'S PROPERTY IS NOT DIRECTLY ON THE DUWAMISH RIVER. BUT HE OWNS A SIGNIFICANT CHUNK OF THE CITY'S INDUSTRIAL CORRIDOR. ONE CONTROVERSIAL ELEMENT OF HIS PLAN IS TO GET TECH BUSINESSES RECLASSIFIED AS INDUSTRIAL. THIS WOULD OPEN THE DOOR TO NEW HIGHER RENT TENANTS.

LEIBMAN: "There would be significant change here. There's no question. I mean it's a question of whether you think it's change for the better or not."

WHAT HENRY DOES WITH HIS LAND WILL IMPACT INDUSTRY FARTHER SOUTH. ROB SMITH SAYS HIS BUSINESS IS ALREADY FEELING PRESSURE TO MOVE OUT OF THE CITY.

LEIBMAN: "What is valued currently in my opinion by our local government, is a developer. Who comes down, tears down a neighborhood, puts up big expensive condominiums, and sells out the people who can't afford it!"

LEIBMAN: "People who can't afford to live in Seattle anymore, how do you address that? Do they have a right to live here? Well there's no right. "

THE DUWAMISH WATERWAY IS A UNIQUE ASSET. IT'S ONE OF ONLY A FEW PLACES ON THE WEST COAST WITH ITS MASSIVE CAPACITY FOR SHIPPING. IT'S A HUGE PART OF SEATTLE'S ECONOMY.

BLOMBERG: "One in ten of the industrial jobs in the county are located here."

PARTNOW: "On the Duwamish River?"

BLOMBERG: "Yep."

GEORGE BLOMBERG IS SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM MANAGER FOR THE PORT OF SEATTLE. HE'S STUDIED THE HISTORY OF INDUSTRY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ON THE RIVER FOR MOST OF HIS 25 YEARS AT THE PORT. HE SAYS THE RIVER STARTED OUT AS A MEANDERING STREAM FLANKED BY MILES OF MUD FLATS AND TIDAL ESTUARY.

THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY WAS A TIME OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. THE PANAMA CANAL WAS BEING BUILT, AND RIVERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY WERE BEING REDIRECTED AND REVERSED, TO MAKE WAY FOR INDUSTRY. IT WAS A TIME WHEN THE YOUNG CITY OF SEATTLE SAW AN OPPORTUNITY TO SECURE ITS PLACE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. THE DUWAMISH WAS STRAIGHTENED AND DEEPENED TO MAKE WAY FOR GIANT SHIPS WITH HEAVY CARGO.

BLOMBERG: "Folks were concerned that cargo would be diverted through the Panama Canal, and Seattle would be left behind. So this landscape change was part of that."

STRAIGHTENING THE RIVER DESTROYED HABITAT FOR NATIVE PLANTS AND ANIMALS, BUT THAT WAS JUST THE BEGINNING. EMERGING INDUSTRIES THAT WORKED ALONG THE WATERWAY SAW IT AS THEIR DUMPING GROUND. FOR DECADES THEY POURED POISONOUS CHEMICALS LIKE PCBS, AND EVEN PLAIN OLD GARBAGE DIRECTLY INTO THE RIVER.

BUT TODAY GEORGE SEES THE DUWAMISH AS A PLACE WHERE INDUSTRY, PUBLIC PARKS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION CAN ALL PEACEFULLY COEXIST. HE'S WORKING ON A PLAN TO BUILD A PARK AT THE END OF 8TH AVENUE IN SOUTH PARK WHERE HUGE TRUCKS CONSTANTLY BARREL DOWN A GRAVEL ROAD. IT'S LOUD. IT SMELLS BAD. AND IT LOOKS DIRECTLY ACROSS AT SLIP 4, ONE OF THE MOST POLLUTED SPOTS ON THE DUWAMISH RIVER. AND AN AREA TARGETED FOR SUPERFUND CLEANUP.

PARTNOW: "I mean is it, is it safe to be encouraging people to spend more time on the Duwamish?"

BLOMBERG: "[sigh] That's a good question. You can't stop the world uh to wait for a large scale cleanup when we have this opportunity. When people use a site like this however they can uh, then begin to understand the river a little more thoroughly and think more coherently about those cleanup activities."

HE IS CLEARLY TROUBLED BY THE STATE OF THE RIVER. BUT HE BELIEVES BRINGING PEOPLE HERE IS THE FIRST STEP OF THE RECOVERY. HIS EYES LIGHT UP AS HE DESCRIBES HIS PLANS FOR THE PARK.

BLOMBERG: "We'd actually reduce the bankline. Re–expose the intertidal and marsh vegetation elevations that were here historically."

THE BANK RIGHT NOW DROPS VERTICALLY FROM HIGH GROUND TO THE WATER LEVEL. BUT IF YOU CREATE A LONG SMOOTH SLOPE, PLANTS WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE ROOT IN WHAT'S NOW A MUDDY NO MAN'S LAND.

BLOMBERG: "And then plant those areas with marsh vegetation, and native repairing vegetation. We'd uh, create sort of a plaza, and steps down to the water right about where we were standing."

I CAN IMAGINE PEOPLE COMING DOWN HERE TO GO KAYAKING, OR WALK THEIR DOGS. OR JUST SIT BY THE WATER AND WATCH THE SHORELINE COME BACK TO LIFE. BUT GEORGE'S PLANS ARE GETTING SOME CRITICISM FROM LOCAL BUSINESS OWNERS.

HALVORSEN: "I just think you're gonna have problems with safety. Someone's gonna get killed. And then, then they're gonna blame whoever hit the child or the adult or whatever."

MC HALVORSEN OWNS INDUSTRIAL LAND HERE IN SOUTH PARK. SHE'S WORRIED ABOUT THE PUBLIC COMING TOO CLOSE TO PURELY INDUSTRIAL AREAS. AND SHE'S GOT A POINT. IN JUST THE FEW MINUTES WE'VE BEEN TALKING BY THE PARK, WE'VE HAD TO STEP OUT OF THE WAY OF 4 OR 5 SEMI TRUCKS.

HALVORSEN: "Why try and push this, this place? It's a cramped street end any way. And then you interfere with the trucks and cause accidents and have sewer leaks."

BUT SOUTH PARK IS A PLACE WHERE INDUSTRIAL AND RESIDENTIAL ZONES HAVE LONG BEEN PUSHED RIGHT UP AGAINST EACH OTHER. YES, IT CAN BE UGLY. BUT IT'S THE HEART OF OUR ECONOMY IN SEATTLE. IT'S WHERE THINGS GET MADE, WHERE OUR PRODUCTS COME FROM.

I'M KINDA JEALOUS OF A MAN LIKE JOHN WALKER. HE GETS TO WATCH IT ALL GO BY FROM HIS TOWER ON THE BRIDGE.

WALKER: "I'll sit on this bridge until they retire it or they kick me off or it falls down."

ON THE SOUTH PARK BRIDGE, I'M JESSICA PARTNOW FOR KUOW 949 SEATTLE.

℗ Copyright 2007, KUOW News