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April 12, 2022
In April 2021, Washington State passed the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, a landmark piece of environmental justice legislation that defines environmental justice, establishes an Environmental Justice Council, requires the use of an environmental health disparities map to analyze cumulative impacts, and builds community input into the decision making process. Dan and Emma discuss how the provisions within the HEAL Act can address environmental disparities and progress over the past year with Dinah Wilson, Equity and Engagement Manager for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and Guillermo Rogel Jr., Legislative and Government Affairs Advocate at Front and Centered - two organizations instrumental in informing this law.
Show notes:
Justice40 briefing
Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map
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Episode transcript:
Dan Bresette: Hello, and welcome to The Climate Conversation. I'm Dan Bresette, executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. And for the first time in a couple of weeks, my regular cohost, Emma Johnson is back on the mic instead of being just behind the scenes, especially for this episode on environmental justice work across federal programs. Welcome back. I'm not sure how I made it without you.
Emma Johnson: Thanks, Dan, I'm happy to be back on the air with you. And as you said, we're going to be focusing our conversation today on how to ensure that environmental justice is integrated into the work of the government. And this episode is going to be closely connected with a briefing that we just held on April 8 2022, about Justice40. So be sure to go and watch that if you haven't already. It's going to be really great and really useful resource for anyone who's interested in learning more about Justice40. And the link to that briefing will be in the show notes of this episode on our website.
Dan: Yes, absolutely. If someone in our audience listening to this right now has not yet watched that briefing. Hit pause, go to eesi.org. Watch that briefing. It was fabulous. The webcast is archived, presentation materials, tremendous speakers, just four really, really excellent perspectives on the issue. And just a quick plug going forward. If you don't want to miss upcoming briefings that we have, we have some really great ones coming up through spring and summer 2022, the best way to keep up with everything is to subscribe to our biweekly newsletter Climate Change Solutions. So after you watch the webcast, but before you come back and pick up the podcast episode, sign up for our newsletter, you won't be sorry that you did. For those of you who might not know or just need a little refresher Justice40 is a federal initiative that the Biden-Harris administration launched in January 2021. Through an executive order called Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. The initiative aims to target 40% of the benefits from specific federal investments, including those for clean energy, energy efficiency, and water infrastructure to priority communities. It is a whole of government effort to ensure that federal agencies work with states and local communities to make sure that climate and energy investments get to the people who need the most.
Emma: Partnerships between federal agencies, state departments, and community organizations are going to be absolutely essential to make sure that investments actually go where they're supposed to go. How all these pieces can come together for just energy transition and address climate future from the community to the federal level is what we are super excited to be talking about today.
Dan: Now justice 40 spans the entire country, it’s a federal initiative, but today we're going to focus on one state - Washington in the Pacific Northwest - to learn how efforts from state and local groups there helped inform a comprehensive map of environmental health disparities, and the passage of a landmark environmental justice law in the state's legislature.
Emma: To dive into this more, we're pleased to welcome two guests today. The first is Dinah Wilson, the Equity and Engagement Manager at the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. It is one of the state's clean air agencies covering the jurisdictions of King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties in the western part of Washington. The second is Guillermo Rogel Jr., the Legislative and Government Affairs Advocate at Front and Centered, which is a coalition of communities of color-led groups across Washington State, working at the intersection of equity and environmental justice. Both the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and Front and Centered provided expertise and input that helped inform the HEAL Act and the environmental health disparities map. Dinah and Guillermo, welcome to the show.
Dinah Wilson: Thank you. It's good to be here.
Guillermo Rogel Jr.: Thanks so much for having me.
Dan: I'd like to start by talking a little bit more about the environmental justice law that I mentioned earlier. In April 2021. Washington State passed SB 5141, called the Healthy Environment for All or HEAL Act. It includes provisions such as requiring the use of a cumulative impacts analysis and a provision to increase community participation in decision making. How was the HEAL Act together? And what are the some of the key parts of this legislation?
Dinah: The Washington State Department of Ecology is the agency in our state that has more of a responsibility for environmental rulemaking. Consequently, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and I'll refer to our agency as PSCAA throughout, did not have a role in developing the HEAL Act. Our role was to is to protect people from air pollution, tell people air hazards, their breathing and protect them and reduce risk by upholding and enforcing the law. Now, having said that, we're keenly aware that environmental disparities exist in frontline communities. Now by frontline communities, I mean, Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, economically disadvantaged individuals and individuals with disabilities and other underserved groups. These populations are hit hardest and first when there's a crisis, whether it be health care, or climate injustice, and the global impacts related to polluted air in climate change. Now because of these disparities in 2019, Front and Centered and the University of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health collaborated to create the statewide environmental health disparities map. The map shows the intersectionality between poverty, environmental hazards, and health impacts in communities across the state of Washington. And subsequently, the state legislature funded the Environmental Justice Task Force, which issued a report of recommendations that was the impetus for the passage of the HEAL Act. And the Act was sponsored by 15 Washington state senators. Senator Rebecca Saldaña, by the way my senator, a primary sponsor stated that “It's time to recognize the disproportionate health impacts our current and past policies have had on communities of color and low-income communities and to do something about it. The HEAL Act requires that state agencies incorporate environmental justice implementation plans into their strategic plans, and conduct environmental justice assessments on significant agency actions to assist with the equitable distribution of environmental benefit benefits, and identify and reduce environmental harms and health disparities.” The HEAL Act is the first statewide law in Washington to create a coordinated state agency approach to environmental justice. And the law covers seven state agencies: the Washington State Department of Health, the State Departments of agriculture, commerce, ecology, natural resources and transportation. And finally, it covers the Puget Sound partnership. Now other state agencies have the option of becoming a part of this coordinated approach to environmental justice, they just can opt in and join the other agencies. The HEAL Act builds on some of the key recommendations from the Environmental Justice Task Force. Some key elements include incorporating environmental justice into agency's strategic plans, developing community engagement plans and tribal consultation frame frameworks, and conducting environmental justice assessments for certain significant actions. It also promotes equitable sharing of environmental benefits and investing in communities that have experienced the greatest environmental and health burdens. The agencies must focus expenditures toward creating environmental benefits for overburdened communities and vulnerable populations. The law sets a goal of 40% of expenditures to these communities, which is a significant commitment. Also providing a voice for disproportionately affected communities and that it centers environmental justice. The law creates an Environmental Justice Council to advise the state and an interagency group to coordinate among agencies. And finally, it also has an element of supporting evaluation tools and processes. It requires the Department of Health to maintain and update the environmental health disparities map for evaluating and tracking environmental health hazards and areas where there's disparities, basically. Agencies and the council must track measure and report on also on environmental justice implementation.
Guillermo: I think where I always like to start the conversation is that environmental justice has been around for a really long time. This is one of the first times that environmental justice is defined in statute. But we know working in our communities, that the work for environmental justice has been going on for a long time. So the principles of the HEAL Act, I would say have been around since the 80s, the 90s, when the first one, the movement really was picking up, you know, Bill Clinton did his executive order in 1994. So, you know, we started to see it pick up steam, but at least in Washington State, the HEAL Act really bore out of conversations out of an initiative 1631 in 2018. And at the same time, the Environmental Health Disparities map was being created. So it was really community starting to get more involved on the policy level, and really trying to define what co-governance was, and what environmental justice was in Washington State. So it was a multiple year long process that took a bit to even pass because the legislation was first introduced in 2019 and didn't pass and it was created into a task force. So instead of the law that we wanted being passed, the task force was now created to come up with recommendations on environmental justice, which we knew at the time what it was going to create. We had in mind some recommendations that were going to be included in the report no matter what, but through this process, Front and Centered was participating in this official governor's task force, and at the same time doing community listening sessions, because we wanted to make sure that we're working with this with the state agencies, with the governor's office, with practitioners on the taskforce, and then concurrently go to our community members and talk about what does it mean to be involved in decision making that impacts your health, that impacts your environment? You know, what kinds of issues are you worried about? And how are you practicing environmental justice in your community? So this really mixed bag of processes are going on at the same time. But the HEAL Act, the official HEAL Act that is now law, came out of the recommendations of the Environmental Justice Task Force. And they finalized their report in October 2020. And then we went through the whole process, where I'm the legislative and government relations lead for Front and Centered, from October 2020 to about April 2021, was the timeline that we had to now push this law and get it signed by the governor.
Emma: One piece that I want to hone in on that's included in the HEAL Act is a part on cumulative impact analysis. And this is also a key feature of the federal environmental Justice bill that is currently in Congress, the Environmental Justice for All Act. Can you define for our audience what cumulative impacts is and why it is so important to think about environmental justice legislation?
Dinah: First, let me just point out that the original bill usef the phrase cumulative impact. However, in the final bill, cumulative impacts was replaced with cumulative environmental health impacts. This is defined as “the combined multiple environmental impacts and health impacts on a vulnerable population, or overburdened community.” Now, this definition allows us to address burdens due to our variety of adverse social, economic factors, as well as the problems caused by the physical environment. Another I think key definition of note is environmental justice. And that means “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, rules and policies. Environmental justice includes addressing disproportionate environmental and health impacts by prioritizing vulnerable populations and overburdened communities and the equitable distribution of resources and benefits and eliminating harm.” As conveyed in the 2019 Task Force report, studies conducted in Washington state as well as national studies found that people of color and low-income people continue to be disproportionately exposed to environmental harms in their communities. As a result, there's a higher risk of adverse health outcomes for those communities. This risk is amplified and overlaid on communities with preexisting social and economic barriers and environmental risk, and increased cumulative environmental health impacts. I think we all saw that with COVID overlaid on some of the problems that people were already having. Examining cumulative health impacts is important environmental justice legislation because it looks at the cumulative effect of environmental health disparities, and the underlying systemic issues that can doom people of color, economically disadvantaged individuals, and other underserved communities. Now addressing these issues, cumulatively, rather than piecemeal is the credible and sensible path to addressing environmental justice inequity.
Guillermo: Yeah, I think it's really easy to see, you know, individual impacts from time to time, whether you're talking about, you know, pollution from a highway, that might be right next to your community, or there's different industry in your town that is very specific to your community. I think we could see that. But the importance, and the way that we look at cumulative impacts is all the different exposures that people face, and all of the different hazards where our communities live and work. And those are things like, you know, wealth, race, an unemployment rate, health status, your language ability, you know, all of those different facets of life, have an impact on your health, and they have to be looked at holistically. And that's our approach. You know, it's like, we can't just take a piece of community and all of the different hazards that they experience, and try to treat them one by one. It really has to be looked at, really at a high level. And that's where the environmental health disparities map comes in. You get to see the different ranks for communities, whether from a one to 10, 10 being the worst in terms of environmental health disparities, we just have to make sure that we acknowledge the problem, and then are also working towards bringing those health disparities down. And all of these individual impacts try to reduce the total cumulative impacts that our communities are facing.
Emma: In a similar way to the Environmental Protection Agency's EJSCREEN tool, the environmental health disparities map allows users to compare areas affected by air pollutants, socioeconomic factors, proximity to hazardous waste sites, and much more all at once so you can see how some of these things can be overlaid with each other to create these cumulative impacts. Can you talk about what the process was like to assemble the data that went into this map and how it can be used to detect and address environmental threats?
Guillermo: Yeah, so there was multiple groups who worked on it. And I think they really brought the expertise and insights from different ways, but Front and Centered really made sure that this was, from our perspective and our advocacy, we had to make sure that however the mapping was created and however the data was gathered, and what we looked at, that had to be centered on frontline communities, those who are experiencing these hazards, you know, first and worst. We were able to use our the different state agencies that already had experience in mapping and then also combine that with folks like PSCAA, who were also a part of the workgroup, and then the University of Washington who had different expertise help form, I would say, a very good way of organizing community and data to really reflect what's going on in community. And so we also did listening sessions as a part of the development of the map, and really wanted to make sure that it was anchored in the voices of community. And then at that same time, combine that with data evaluation and literature review, because we knew that the environmental health disparities map would be used in future legislation, and we wanted it to be referenced, right. And we wanted folks to also be able to point to it and say, you know, we're going to be using the environmental health disparities map to guide this policy, to guide this budget decision making process. So we had to make sure that it was community informed. And at the same time, we were using everyone's different expertise in that process.
Dinah: PSCAA began focusing on mapping equity concerns over 10 years ago, we did that on our own. We were one of the maybe the only place in the area that was doing that. At the time, some government, most government agencies were afraid to release equity maps. There were concerns that mapping equity can influence land values, some areas were more impacted than others. But you know, we just were sure that without showing the differences, how can we basically determine areas of the greatest need and move toward equity? Because we had experience with mapping PSCAA's equity tool positioned us to provide valuable feedback to the subsequent statewide environmental health disparities map. And there's no doubt you know, that Front and Centered and University of Washington showed great leadership in moving the map forward. We were able to share our best local air quality information with them. We shared that information to help Front and Centered and UW benefit from our missteps. For example, we found that some data we were using initially just didn't add value. So we shared that with them. A very important point: maps and data are only a first step to identify areas of concern. I love this upcoming quote by Mei Mei Evans, an assistant professor and the Director of the Master of Arts program at Alaska Pacific University. She states that personal testimonies are, “the lifeblood of the environmental justice movement,” because they convey the real lived consequences of environmental injustice rather than abstractions, we really have to hear people's stories along with the data. This is also why environmental justice case studies are so vital. Such case studies illustrate the importance of local knowledges and values in developing responses to local environmental risks. And they highlight the ways community activists draw on these cultural knowledges, grassroots science, and community practices of uncovering environmental racism.
Dan: At the time of recording this podcast, it's the beginning of April, and we're about one year on from the passage of the Heal Act. The Environmental Justice Council, which was formed to the Heal Act, just had its first meeting on Monday, April 4. What have you seen as progress points or obstacles after this first year? And are there some ways that you hope to see this work continue in the future?
Dinah: Well thanks for the question. You know, I'm not sure I'm best positioned to comment on progress or obstacles of the 16 member Environmental Justice Council. So as to your question of how PSCAA would like to see this work continue, it includes seeing the council provide effective guidance to agencies in the development and adoption of their respective community engagement plans, incorporate community engagement in their strategic plans, which is something we're working on now at PSCAA, report back to the community on outcomes, and invest in environmental justice principles, value accountability, that's so important. And, you know, see positive change in data monitoring that leads to real improvement in environmental health of the overburden communities we've mentioned.
Guillermo: So I think with the progress piece specifically, we are just excited that the implementation process is getting underway, because it took so long from the conversations that we had as community members and community organizations to now it's getting implemented. And we're seeing state agencies talk about issues in ways that they haven't talked about. So now that environmental justice is defined, that community agencies have to come up with a plan on community engagement, and also adopt environmental justice assessments, and throughout that whole process, involve the Environmental Justice Council, which is community driven, that's great to see. The kinds of conversations and concepts I'm hearing agencies discuss, are really started in community. So to hear agencies now speak and talk about concepts that were developed in community and talk about how we can compensate folks for their time, you know, increase access to these meetings, and then inform - because state agencies do request legislation, they are the ones who are asking the state legislature to adopt specific policies and budgets. And now environmental justice is going to be, it's built into that process now. And it's not like other issues that exist in the state that the legislature is trying to solve. So I would say that even just the fact that HEAL exists is great. I think some of the challenges that we run into is just timing, because there's one thing about passing the law and then it getting implemented on time, and also, the Environmental Justice Council and environmental justice in Washington, a lot of the legislature's talking about it, a lot of the state agencies are talking about it. And even though, you know, as I just mentioned, it's great to see them, we also want to be cautious and careful about how folks are discussing environmental justice. And whether community believes whatever policies and budgets are trying to pass are, or they're not, because you can look at the same definition on paper, but if the decision making process, if an overall impact of any kind of bill is not what community wants, but we're using the same language, that's where it gets, it gets tricky, right. So everyone can talk about it now that it's in statute. But we want to make sure it looks right. Not just that people are talking about environmental justice in the state.
Emma: So Dan, and I talked in the beginning of this episode about how we recently held a briefing on the status of Justice40 at the federal level, and the opportunities and challenges of that initiative so far. And are there some lessons learned from the HEAL Act as it has been implemented so far, or the environmental health disparities map as it has been created and used so far that can be applied to the effort to integrate environmental justice across federal agencies at the federal level? And what do you think are some opportunities and challenges for this work at the federal level based on your experience at the state level?
Guillermo: So I would say at the federal level, we need to target the agencies that have the most impact on our health and our communities, because I think doing it all at once will present some of its challenges, because here, we're coordinating with all of these agencies who maybe haven't spoken about environmental justice, ever, or maybe speak of it very little. But now that you know, it's environmental justice, it's new work for them. And a huge part of this work is community engagement. And the part that's exciting is agencies, I would say are kind of getting a crash course on what grassroots organizing looks like, on what community engagement and building these solid relationships with communities who will show up for you, but you show up for them too. Every agency is at a different starting point. Some of them have been doing really good jobs at community engagement and EJ others have not. So that's where I would say it's a learning process for us and for them. And a different level of trust, I think needs to be built and is being built because of because of the HEAL Act. The challenges, I think, come from moving this up to like a national scale. We don't want the movement of environmental justice and what we need a just transition to be to just be all of a sudden incorporated without that much community input or just because folks want to do it. We need to make sure that the for us the process of developing HEAL was community driven. We had a ton of floor time in front of agencies and lawmakers to define what we wanted. And we still didn't even get the entire bill that we wanted. We started off with one version, one draft that was informed by us, written by us by Front and Centered and our partners at Cascadia Law. You know, that first draft was really what we wanted, then it had to go through the whole process of how much do agencies want to do, you know, different thresholds were put into the HEAL Act of well, we're not going to do environmental justice until like a $15 million benchmark, or we're not going to do assessments on these activities over here, because we probably know what they're going to show. And it's not going to be a positive environmental impact. So those were some of the challenges is, you know, we had a lot to do with this, community had a lot to do with writing the HEAL Act here in Washington, we're tracking what's going on at the federal level and giving comments, but I just thought that it's different when it gets scaled up to the federal level at that point.
Dinah: You know, I see potential value and the benefit of having a national model that is similar to Washington's model, you know, one that requires interagency coordination, collaboration with frontline and impacted communities, such an important aspect of the work. And using mapping science and data to guide investments, policies, and implementation. A national approach that leads to better outcomes is certainly worth considering.
Dan: Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Dinah and Guillermo, it was really, really nice to have an opportunity to meet you and hear about your work. And kind of reinforces the idea that I have that what happens at the state level is really, really important, especially in a state like Washington, that's kind of setting the leading edge. And I think it's a good reminder for our federal policy audience that there are things the federal government can do to be helpful. Sometimes that's being proactively helpful. Sometimes that's letting states lead and stake out new ground. And so this was really, really great. Thanks so much for being here.
Dinah: You're very welcome. I enjoyed it. It's good to meet you, Dan, and also you Emma. I look forward to talk with you again in the future hopefully,
Guillermo: Thanks so much for having me.
Dan: I'm not sure I can add much more to what our podcast guests said today. And I certainly can't speak on this topic with any more authority than our recent briefing panelists did. So I'm just going to remind everyone to go back and watch our briefing on Friday, April 8, it's available online at www.eesi.org. And listen to the experts and the practitioners and the people who live this issue every day and are making an enormous difference in how federal investments are reaching communities who need them.
Emma: Totally agree, Dan, and every podcast that the two of us do together just emphasizes for me more and more how everything that happens at the federal level really is happening at the state level. And it's where the magic happens. And it's where things actually hit the ground and where these programs have to come to life is at the state level in every state across the country. So it was really exciting to hear about the work that's being done in Washington to see how they are one of the states that's leading the charge on implementing environmental justice, across their agencies and through all their work in their communities. And I'm really hopeful about how this work through Justice40 and many other pieces of legislation in states across the country can help advance all this even further. So great to hear about all of this going on in Washington, and as you said, from our briefing at the federal level. So if you want to learn more about EESI work about environmental justice, head to our website at eesi.org Also follow us on social media at @eesionline for all of our recent updates. The Climate Conversation is published as a supplement to our bi weekly newsletter, Climate Change Solutions. Go to eesi.org/signup to subscribe, and be sure to listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us and see you next time.
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