Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition head BJ Cummings unveiled her organization’s final “vision” map to dignitaries and press on the river she hopes to clean. Seattle City Councilmember Richard Conlin, and Port Commission President John Creighton spoke.

While the river is plagued with polluted soil to be cleaned by Superfund dollars, Cummings’ organization’s wish list of ecological improvements has become less murky with the release of the map.

This map is the end result of DRCC’s Duwamish Valley Vision Project. It recommends habitat, and green industrial and transportation improvements along the Duwamish Corridor. It is a culmination of ideas collected from a diverse area population, including University of Washington students, Georgetown and South Park area homeless people, Cambodian and Vietnamese residents, and attendees of eight meetings over 2008, as well as 10 stakeholders the DRCC represents.

They include the South Park Neighborhood Association, the Georgetown Community Council, the Environmental Coolition of South Seattle, or ECOSS, and the Duwamish Tribe.

The map was presented to the EPA Community Advisory Group for the Superfund site. Timely, as next month the EPA will release its first feasibility study draft with the map in mind.

“I find it helpful to use the expression, ‘a vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a vision is just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world,’ or in this case, the Duwamish Valley,” said Cummings, hosting a 20-minute boat ride on the 34-foot “Aluminator.”

The vision map encourages the installation of Portland-like aerial trams, or gondolas, in addition to water taxis to downtown, plus taxi crossings between South Park and Georgetown to ease traffic on the rickety South Park Bridge that may need to come down. Plans to replace the bridge exist, but no funding has been set aside. She said Governor Gregoire has been to Washington, D.C. to find funding for a new bridge with the new stimulus plan.

Cummings said that most South Park residents living in homes on the river have pledged to use their own property to “soften” their shore with a more gradual bank, make it salmon friendly, and install native plants to filter storm water.

“Boeing Plant 2 is one of the most contaminated hot spots and has a cleanup plan to begin in the next few years,” said Cummings, pointing to the long weathered building on the Georgetown river side while clutching a board with two color drawings depicting a bucolic waterfront scene, her vision for the future of Plant 2, and its northern neighbor, Slip 4, and Terminal 117, just south of the South Park Marina, all Superfund hot spots.

“In our vision the warehouse comes down,” Cummings said. “Boeing has talked about a 300-foot setback to create a green buffer and habitat. With dedication and commitments these things will happen.”