Cleaning up the Duwamish River: Today So Far

• Cleaning up the Duwamish River so your kids can one day swim in it.
• Monkeypox cases are doubling in Washington state every 8 or 9 days.
• Washington Congresswoman Suzan DelBene lands in Taiwan with Speaker Pelosi.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for August 2, 2022.

Not a lot of folks realize that the Duwamish River through Seattle was designated as an EPA superfund site in 2001. That basically means previous industry has severely polluted the environment there and requires considerable cleanup. Such cleanup takes years. There are superfund sites on Bainbridge Island, around McChord Airforce Base, at landfills in Lewis County and near Spokane, the infamous Hanford site, and elsewhere in Washington — there are a bunch, you can look them up here.

A community program around Seattle's South Park has breathed new life into restoration efforts along the Duwamish River there. The Duwamish River Community Coalition got the Port of Seattle to increase its own restoration work, providing habitat for birds and fish. The result has been more open space and river access in this area.

"When I was a kid, I always wanted to swim in the Duwamish," said Nico Peters, 17, who helped construct the park with the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps. "My hope is that, in the future, my kids will be able to swim in the river, because I never got that opportunity."

But more work needs to be done. Soundside has the story here.

Ever since monkeypox became a story, I've had a little anxiety reporting about it. Not because of the virus itself, rather, because I know there are folks out there who will take the information, funnel it through an ideological filter, and hype it all up as a "gay disease."

The thing is, there will always be people out there who will twist information to serve themselves. That doesn't mean a reporter shouldn't be sensitive and careful. It also doesn't mean you don't deliver the news. So here it is.

Monkeypox is doubling in Washington state about every 8 or 9 days.

"So clearly, this is an outbreak that is not under control," Dr. Tao Kwan-Gett, chief science officer for the Washington state Department of Health, told KUOW.

As of Aug. 1, there were 145 confirmed cases in Washington state, most of which are in King County and surrounding communities.

Most cases are among men who have sex with other men. This is important to understand: Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection. It's not only affecting the gay community. You get it by simply touching someone, or potentially having contact with infected linens. Saying that this is only of concern to gay folks is like saying Covid was only a concern for seafood markets in early 2020. If that statement sounds ridiculous ... good, it should. The United States has had monkeypox outbreaks before, and sexual orientation had nothing to do with it.

Due to potential stigma associated with "monkeypox," some medical professionals have started referring to it as simply "MPV."

“Anybody who has physical contact with another person who has an infectious rash could be infected," Dr. Kwan-Gett said. "It's important to keep in mind that we're not safe from MPV until all of us in our communities are safe from MPV."

There is an effort to increase the availability of vaccines for this virus. More on that here.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Southern Oregon University's Keoni Diacamos at work on July 21 excavating the site of a home in the vanished company town that once surrounded the Baker White Pine Mill. Read more here. (Northwest News Network)

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

Pelosi has landed in Taiwan. Here's why that's a big deal

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., landed in Taiwan late Tuesday evening local time, and she is expected to meet members of Taiwan's legislature and President Tsai Ing-wen. The highly-anticipated stop has faced stark warnings from China, in turn worrying the White House that it could trigger a crisis in the Taiwan Strait and worsen already tense U.S.-China relations.

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