The loss of the South Park Bridge, which may come down in June, and the lack of funds in the near future to replace it, has created a ripple effect, not only in the area’s industrial sector, but also in the environmental community concerned with the polluted Duwamish River, a Superfund Site that hosts dozens of toxic chemicals.

Thea Levkovitz is coordinator of the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, or DRCC, a formal community advisory group recognized by Environmental Protection Agency.

“We share the concerns of the South Park community that the TIGER grant ($99 million) didn’t come in,” said Levkovitz. TIGER grants, part of the Federal government’s stimulus package, were awarded nationwide for transportation projects, and locally, for Mercer Avenue road development, but the bridge was overlooked.

“We’re getting ready in the next few years for the Superfund cleanup on the lower five miles of the Duwamish River,” she said. “That means heavy equipment, trucks, in addition to residents in South Park needing a way to commute out.”

There are currently two bridges that cross the Superfund Site, the South Park Bridge and the 1st Avenue Bridge.

“Early action sites predate Superfund, which came in 2000. Terminal 117 is an early action site, and is on the fast track to be cleaned up in the next year or two,” she said. “It’s just up river from the bridge and marina and coincides completely with loss of the South Park Bridge. I can’t say for certain how many trucks will cross the bridge for cleanup, but they will now have to drive through South Park neighborhoods with their toxic loads to reach the 1st Avenue Bridge. And going the long way adds costs.

“This is an ‘environmental justice community’ that is already impacted,” she added. “It is inundated with a variety of other issues and has more than its fair share of poverty and low employment. There is not even a grocery store carrying fresh food. They live on a river with 42 toxic chemicals and shouldn’t have to choose between their health and economics.

“Now they won’t have a bridge, and can’t easily get to a market, and with just one (elementary) school and the older kids bused to another neighborhood, that will be inconvenient, too.”

Levkovitz is careful to point out the DRCC is not about eliminating industry, but rather living side by side.

“We are also very concerned about potential cuts in Washington State Department of Ecology funding,” she said. “They oversee all ongoing sites of pollution. They start at the pipe going into the Duwamish, then go back until they reach a maze of pipes under businesses, attached, detached, used, not used, to try to figure out where the pollution is. Ongoing sources of pollution haven’t stopped.

“How far out do the contaminants go into neighborhood, yards, streets? Some sampling has been done for PCB’s, and dioxins/furans, but it has been incomplete. How deep? How far? Some samples are not yet analyzed because the city doesn’t want to do more sampling.”

She believes the city fears it will find these chemicals in the soil of homes many blocks west of the river. Such a cleanup would be a huge project with a huge price tag.

“I think it’s critical that this new bridge be built,” said Dagmar Cronn, South Park resident and South Park Neighborhood Association president.

“We need a consortium of jurisdictions to agree that it has to be done,” Cronn said. We need support from more than just King County to get it done.

“If the Terminal 117 cleanup begins and the South Park Bridge is not available we would have trucks carrying all the material that has to be transported away through the neighborhood,” she said. “There will be routing issues. It could make it slower, more expensive, and a little more problematic for spillages in the neighborhood. I’m still waiting for our elected officials to do the right thing.”

Check out: www.duwamishcleanup.org