I painted a boat once, at the boat yard under the 16th Ave So. Bridge on the Duwamish. The 16th Ave. So. Bridge was once a major link between South Seattle and the Boeing plant during World War II. There was also a tool company down, there, I knew of, a roofing materials plant along with a myriad of other businesses dating back to WWII and before. It was a historic part of town, un-gentrified by the building boom of the eighties as the Seattle economy bounced back from the big Boeing layoff in the seventies. By the early eighties, South Park was classed as one of the most polluted areas in the country by the EPA due mostly to dioxins.
On the north side of the Bridge was Georgetown with Boeing and a wall of warehouses and industrial facilities along the river bank. On the South side of the bridge was South Park, a warm, friendly little community of maybe two or three hundred houses. The roofing plant and boat yard were on the south side of the river, but other than that there still access to the river. There was never any mention of Georgetown, on the north bank of the river, when media reports were circulated about the pollution in the area, only South Park.
I was very astute to the pollution when I restored my boat. I was managing a recycling center at the time and had read a lot on environmental issues. I had read about South Park on and off in the news, as an EPA hazardous waste site. Out of scientific curiosity I did some research and took all the precautions to see how I could paint my boat environmentally sensitive in aspirations of studying this relative new industry of enivronmental safety and maybe changing careers.
By the nineties South Park was labeled the most heavily polluted area in the World with dioxins. Most of the pollution was along the river, but one could imagine the dust could spread throughout the neighborhood.
South Park had a sort of community pride with an international flavour. The Yuppies who had gentrified 'upscale' parts of Seattle, stayed away from South Park because of environmental concerns. Thus South Park became a small international district as the housing prices stayed low. Today South Park has an internationally recognized May day parade, put on by the Mexican community, that's a beautiful affair with immaculate costumes, horses, food and dances.
I sold a book once, door to door, all over Seattle, and South Park was one of the warmest friendliest communities I ever met. When I restored my boat, in the boat yard, I took pride in the fact that I was one of the first to do so down environmentally, catching my dust from sanding, with a dam before it went down the drain into the river. Common practice down there, had never done such, and it was typical to let all chemicals flow down the storm drain into the river without regard. Being such an old facility it didn't have any oil water separators installed, or anything else either, although I'm sure the EPA and DOE were studying the facility. 'Grandfathered' the owners of the boat yard would say.
Most of the dioxin pollution came from the shingle plant. Other industry, still influenced by WWII ways, practiced little environmental concern in South Park and the reports of pollution were alarming. I can only surmise the residents there, live in great peril.
Then in 2013 I heard a radio spot, briefly, provided by the EPA, that there were classes on how residents could learn how to water their lawns safely and how not to use chemicals that would wash down into the river. Here I dare say is propaganda at its worst. The South Park area, which is probably still on the EPA's hazardous waste site, caused by industry pillaging of the environment, is populated by hard who would only want the best for their community and a place to raise their children. When I knocked on doors down there, there wasn't enough money to maintain the lawns, much less to take the blame for the the most contaiminated site in the World. Here the EPA is either taking credit for a poorly run clean up or shifting the blame from industry to a low paid hard working public. These ads, this direction the EPA is taking, is disturbing. I would guess this is direct evidence of how wall street and its corporations have influenced and even controlled the direction our government is taking.
