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NOAA attends Vigor Restoration Project Open House on the Lower Duwamish River

MAY 15, 2023 — The EPA, Elliott Bay Trustees, and stakeholders attended an open house for the recently constructed Vigor restoration project on Harbor Island on the Lower Duwamish River in Seattle. Trustees finalized a Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) settlement in May 2021 with Vigor Industrial and Exxon Mobil. This restoration project based settlement, valued at over $45 million, is significant in terms of liability and benefit to trust resources on the river. This complex construction project required major demolition of pier and upland structures and piling removal, paired with a Superfund cleanup. Vigor transformed this highly industrial working shipyard facility into a 2.7 acre restoration project of new, off-channel marsh, intertidal, and riparian habitat on their Harbor Island property. Hundreds of juvenile salmon have already been observed swimming in the site.

A team of NOAA staff outside a construction zone.
NOAA attends Vigor Restoration Project Open House on the Lower Duwamish River (Credit: NOAA)
Last updated Friday, May 19, 2023 9:28am PDT