Ashli Blow, Prism | 1/23/2024
Pollution; Health Disparities; Legislative Session
The bill also builds on Washington state’s three-year-old Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, which aims to address environmental justice by incorporating health and equity considerations into decision-making processes. The CURB Act fills a gap in the HEAL Act, as South Tacoma had recently experienced with industrial permitting.
”HEAL is a lot of information gathering, which can help an agency better think about what the consequences of their actions may be,” said Nico Wedekind, policy counsel for Front and Centered. “But it doesn’t attach at the permit level—the permits are not explicitly called out, and so that’s what we’re trying to get at here…”