Project Summary (2017-2022)

The University of Washington Superfund Research Program (UW SRP) Center Community Engagement Core (CEC) has a long history of working with community groups and coalitions, government agencies, Tribal Nations, health professionals, and individual stakeholders to address environmental problems of concern. The CEC has developed bidirectional relationships with several of these organizations and agencies to address their priorities and provide needed assistance to help them succeed. The CEC will build on the strengths of the program as well as expand activities and partnerships. The CEC will work with community groups and agencies involved in the cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW) to develop effective strategies to address subsistence fishing in the river as the cleanup proceeds through the remediation process, with the goal of protecting the health of the public by reducing exposure to known contaminants in the fish.

The UW SRP Center CEC also works with investigators from the Arsenic in Shallow Unstratified and Seasonally Stratified Urban Lakes: Mobility, Bioaccumulation and Ecological Toxicity project and community groups and agencies involved in the cleanup of the Asarco Superfund site, which includes several communities in southern King County, as well as state and local agencies. The CEC has a longstanding relationship with the Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition (NWTCC) and will continue to partner with the coalition on their stated priorities, including providing support for annual summits, workshops and webinars.

The CEC and the Training Core work together to identify engagement opportunities for trainees. Trainees are involved in a community engagement project with the NWTCC and other community partners. The common thread across all of the UW SRP Center activities with the NWTCC, individual community organizations, and Federal, State and Local agencies is to help these organizations build capacity in areas critical to their success.