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It’s hard to tell whether people who don’t live, or frequent, the area truly understand the burden shouldered by the people who live in the Duwamish Valley. Encouraging regional headlines have a way of muting local concerns. Troy Abel, a professor of environmental policy at Western Washington, who serves as a technical advisor to the DRCC, noted a 2020 EPA release with a headline reading: “EPA reports overall 12 percent decline in industrial toxic releases for the Pacific Northwest, Idaho and Alaska.”

“This is a common problem in geographic science,” said Abel. “When you change the scale, all the statistics change.”