United States, et al. v. the City of Seattle and Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (now King County), Civ. No. C90-395WD (W.D. Wash.)

• SETTLING PARTIES: City of Seattle and King County Municipality of Metropolitan Services
• SITE: Elliott Bay and lower Duwamish River, Washington
• EFFECTIVE DATE: Dec. 23, 1991
• EFFECTIVE DATE OF AMENDED CONSENT DECREE: Oct. 14, 1999
• COPY OF AGREEMENT

AMENDED CONSENT DECREE, October 13, 1999 File 1 of 2 (939KB) and File 2 of 2 (719KB). Attachment to Consent Decree (Program's Transition Management Plan): File 1 of 3 (1015KB), File 2 of 3 (1144KB), and File 3 of 3 (1392KB).

SETTLEMENT ELEMENTS: On March 19,1990, the United States filed suit against the City of Seattle and Metro (now the King County Department of Metropolitan Services) to recover damages for alleged injuries to natural resources caused by the release of hazardous substances, particularly harmful metals and organic chemicals, from the City and Metro combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and storm drains (SDs) discharging into Elliott Bay and the lower Duwamish River. Rather than going through a potentially long and costly legal process, the parties to the suit worked out an agreement to work together to restore, to the extent practicable, the natural resources in Elliott Bay and the lower Duwamish River. The main elements included the following:

• Sediment Remediation: The City and Metro would jointly pay $12 million into a trust account over a six-year period, 1992-1997, for the purpose of conducting projects primarily around CSOs and SDs.
• Habitat Development: The City and Metro would jointly pay $5 million into the trust account over a six-year period, 1992-1997; and make available real estate valued up to $5 million for the purpose of restoring habitat.
• Source Control: The City and Metro would jointly make available up to $2 million in additional measures to control sources of pollution that could re-contaminate the project sites; these funds are above and beyond those efforts and funds under their existing programs.

In 1999, the Parties amended the Consent Decree to:

• Reflect Metro's assimilation into King County;
• Add a paragraph to permit the Panel to use of a portion of the interest in the Registry Account for planning and design support;
• Add text to permit unspent panel functions support to be used for planning and design;
• Provide for annual budgeting as a management tool; and
• Provide scopes, schedules, and budgets for the Panel's remaining activities.

SETTLEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: The Elliott Bay/Duwamish River Restoration Program was established by this settlement to help the parties to restore and replace natural resources injured by pollution in Elliott Bay and the lower Duwamish River. The Program consists of a decision-making Panel, a sediment remediation working group, a habitat development working group, and a public participation committee. In June 1994, the Panel published a "Concept Document," which presented a preliminary inventory of potential restoration and sediment remediation projects and the criteria for screening and ranking those projects. All Panel habitat and sediment remediation projects selected with these criteria have now been completed, except for the on-going monitoring and stewardship activities.