Habitat Development for Eco-Credit in Port Settings

The Duwamish Waterway is an industrial waterway in Seattle, WA, that was originally a broad, meandering river with thousands of acres of natural mudflats and wetlands. Following nearly a century of contamination from industrial activities, a 5-mile stretch of the river was designated as a Superfund site and listed on EPA's National Priorities List. The Elliott Bay Trustee Council developed the Lower Duwamish River Natural Resource Damage Assessment (LDR/NRDA) to determine the extent of natural resource damage in the Lower Duwamish River and evaluate ways to restore these damaged natural resources. This paper discusses a habitat restoration program in which Bluefield Holdings has entered into a public-private partnership with the City of Seattle to create multiple NRDA restoration sites on City-owned parcels along the Duwamish Waterway. Initial projects are in close proximity to public bridges, which have limited commercial value but high habitat restoration value. These habitat restoration projects generate credits that are "banked" and can be sold to Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) along the waterway as a means of settling their Natural Resource Damage liability. This paper also features a case study highlighting design challenges faced on the first restoration project (Site #1).