SHAPE OUR WATER: MAGDALENA ‘MAGGIE’ ANGEL-CANO
Growing up in South Park, Maggie Angel-Cano spent years without realizing Seattle’s only river ran through her neighborhood.
“We had no idea there was a river in the community,” she said. “We just, you know, lived our daily life: work, school, back home.”
It didn’t help that the waterway was more or less off-limits. Around the time her family moved to the area, about 20 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency declared the Duwamish River one of the most polluted places in the country. Groups such as the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC), the environmental justice nonprofit where Angel-Cano now works, have been part of restoring the river’s ecology ever since. The group hosts regular cleanup activities and educational events, and it advocates on behalf of marginalized communities in the Duwamish Valley that have borne the brunt of industrial pollution.
