The Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW) Superfund site is a five-mile segment of Seattle’s only river, the Duwamish. The river flows between the neighborhoods of Georgetown and South Park and through the industrial core of Seattle into Elliott Bay. The EPA declared the Lower Duwamish Waterway a “Superfund” site in 2001, making it eligible for a special federal cleanup program due to the severity of its contamination. The EPA is responsible for administering the cleanup of sediments in the Waterway.

The Roundtable’s purposes are to:

• Provide recommendations to the EPA to develop a successful cleanup design and implementation;

• Act as an inclusive, neutral, and transparent forum for input from all stakeholders - Tribes, residents, businesses, industries, labor groups, neighborhood groups, government agencies, waterway users, fishers, and others;

• Act as a means of providing good-faith communications, understanding, and information on topics related to the Superfund cleanup;

• Identify potential ways opportunities to benefit the neighborhoods affected by the cleanup, within the parameters of the Superfund site cleanup; and,

• Support the ability of all stakeholders and agencies to operate under the same set of facts.

The Roundtable will have certain limitations. For example, the Roundtable is not intended to take the place of:

• The Duwamish River Community Coalition/Technical Advisory Group’s function as a Community Advisory Group for the cleanup.

• Government-to government Tribal consultation with the Suquamish Tribe, Muckleshoot Tribe, and Yakama Nation.

• Formal public involvement and public comment opportunities that the EPA and Ecology would otherwise do.