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Hope, hard work ahead for Duwamish River cleanup effort
5/16/09 West Seattle Herald story on Duwamish forum
West Seattle Herald, 5/16/09
By Steve Shay
Duwamish Longhouse director and tribal member James Rasmussan hosted a State of the Duwamish River symposium with three speakers and more than 80 attendees at the Longhouse and Cultural Center Thursday, May 13.
He referred to the event as an annual accounting of the clean-up process. The three speakers included Kathy Fletcher, executive director of People For Puget Sound, BJ Cummings, Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition departing coordinator, and incoming coordinator Thea Levkovitz.
"For 20 years I have been an environmental point person for the Duwamish cleanup effort," said Rasmussan. "In the changes we've made we are in a much better place than we were 20 years ago. But it's like cleaning up your kitchen. If you don't get it completely clean the dirt comes right back. We need to do a 'state of river, state of the Sound' annual update. There is no yearly update of what is happening and thats what we want to do."
As Rasmussan Introduced Fletcher, he said, "When we and other curmudgeons got things started it was Kathy who was able to bring our ideas on line."