Boeing’s Bloated Debt to Seattle’s Duwamish River

Boeing strikes again, but this time, it’s not whistleblower deaths or airplane doors flying off mid-air⁠ — it’s dumping their toxic waste into the Duwamish River. Actually, this is an ongoing issue with Boeing; they’ve been polluting Seattle’s historic Duwamish River all while claiming they’ve been cleaning it up for decades.

James Rasmussen, member of the Duwamish Tribe and manager of the Duwamish River Community Coalition Superfund, dedicated three decades of his life to cleaning up this river. The climate activist grew up alongside the river, fishing for salmon with his father. Now, he says that the Duwamish River is too polluted to be returned to the way it was when he was a child. Only preventative action will save the river from worsening.

Rasmussen aims to find a solution that satisfies every stakeholder involved: the ecosystem, people, and land-owning parties. But Boeing, whose net worth is $112.66 billion, refuses to pay its share of the clean-up with King County and the Port of Seattle, the other primary landowners of the river.

These organizations can’t seem to cooperate in a way that will bring about actual change. Boeing claims that the Port refuses to concede to their offer. The Port, on the other hand, claims in court documents that Boeing aims to evade the cost of clean-up, despite the airplane company’s obvious contribution to the Duwamish River being one of the most polluted rivers in the country.

Notably, Boeing used to be more transparent about how much waste they would dump into the Duwamish River. In the 1950s, they proudly admitted that they dumped “volatile” waste into the river (which was/is a source of food and other commodities for the Duwamish people). Boeing was confident that their waste wouldn’t cause harm. Either they were wrong, or they didn’t care.

The Duwamish River has been a long-time source of food for the Duwamish people⁠ — salmon, perch, sole, flounder, crab, mussel, and clams can all be found in the ecosystem. But only the salmon is safe to eat because of the severe pollution that Boeing (and these other land-owning entities) contributed to.

You may have noticed that the primary landowners of the Duwamish River⁠ — and those who are resisting their role in the clean-up effort⁠ — do not include the Duwamish people, even though these individuals still live in this region. This is due to the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliot, which was created to take away the regions of Seattle, Renton, Tukwila, Bellevue, and Mercer Island, displacing Duwamish people⁠ and forcing them to join other reservations.

Many Duwamish people resisted the settlers’ efforts to get rid of them. As of 1983, not only is the Duwamish Tribe governed by a council with a constitution, but the Duwamish Tribal Services, a 501[c]3 organization, was also created by Duwamish people to bolster their lives and culture. Regrettably, the U.S. government still has yet to federally recognize the Duwamish Tribe, making it difficult for the Duwamish individuals, many of whom still live on their aboriginal land, to receive quality educational, social, cultural, and health services.

Additionally, the Duwamish people are disproportionately threatened by the more well-known impacts of climate change, including air pollution, wildfires, flooding, and mental health issues.

Rasmussen’s non-profit organization, the Duwamish River Community Coalition Superfund, is the main Duwamish-led group influencing the clean-up effort. They strive to bolster the voices of the Duwamish people who are directly impacted by the actions of the three wealthy land-owning entities.

While Boeing is absolutely culpable for the contamination of the Duwamish River, so are many other stakeholders, all of whom are taking their sweet time with the clean-up effort. If you are concerned about this issue and want to speed up the clean-up effort⁠ — because King County, the Port of Seattle, and Boeing are making this project needlessly long despite having the funds to fix this issue⁠ — here’s how you can donate to the Duwamish River Community Coalition Superfund.