Actions

Direct beneficial environmental activities, investments, and community research towards better understanding and improving areas with environmental health disparities and where the environmental health improvements will be greatest. (ID #112)

Key opportunities for 2022-2026 include:

• Create economies of scale;
• Plan and begin to implement approaches for engaging vulnerable populations and underserved communities in two-way conversations;
• Conduct environmental justice assessments for significant actions;
• Identify and implement processes for considering environmental justice in budgeting, expenditures, and granting or withholding environmental benefits;
• Develop consultation frameworks with tribal nations and consortia to communicate and collaborate on environmental justice actions;
• Consider appropriate applications of the Washington State Environmental Health Disparities Map for Puget Sound;
• Pursue additional community-based research to ground truth and clarify environmental health disparities in the context of Puget Sound recovery.

Adequately resource community-led efforts to promote education and awareness about environmental health risks associated with air pollution, drinking water contamination, surface water pollution, and toxics in fish and shellfish. (ID #114)

Key opportunities for 2022-2026 include:

• Foster partnerships among tribal nations, state agencies, local health jurisdictions, community-based organizations, and the research community;
• Leverage and fund watershed councils to promote actions to reduce pollution and protect watersheds through accountability and reporting;
• Support community education and organizing related to toxics in products (PFAS) and other potential sources of exposure to toxics.

Limit people’s exposures to harmful air pollution. (ID #199)

Key opportunities for 2022-2026 include:

• Increase air quality studies of emissions of jet planes impacting communities;
• Develop and implement approaches to sharing real- time air quality information and short-term forecasts to provide warnings about potentially harmful conditions (for example, expand air quality messaging in smartphone weather apps; develop complementary approaches to reach vulnerable populations and underserved communities and vulnerable populations);
• Expand programs to reduce particulate air pollution (for example, from wood stoves, diesel engines, etc.);
• Focus these programs on reducing exposures to vulnerable populations and underserved communities; expand programs to reduce the formation of ground- level ozone, including reducing vehicle miles powered by internal combustion;
• Expand the coverage of emission checks and standards, etc.;
• Increase investments in nature-based solutions to improve air quality (for example, increased tree canopy, etc.).

Limit people’s exposures to harmful water pollution. (ID #200)

Key opportunities for 2022-2026 include:

• Focus investments to improve drinking water systems to ensure standards are met across Puget Sound communities, with attention to drinking water supplies and systems serving vulnerable populations and underserved communities;
• Identify and address sources of pollution that impair water quality in areas where people swim and recreate, and other in-water recreation and local foods harvesting areas;
• Prevent people’s exposure to poor water quality at fresh and marine swimming and recreational areas by maintaining and expanding beach monitoring and signage.

Implementation Considerations

What We're Measuring

Legislative Actions