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West Marginal Way SW along the stretch where SDOT is planning a protected bike lane in one southbound lane. (Ryan Packer)
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has announced that it will hold off on constructing an on-street bike connection from the West Seattle Bridge Trail to the Duwamish River Trail on West Marginal Way SW until after the West Seattle High bridge reopens to vehicle traffic next year.
The connection was originally planned to be included in a slate of improvements that would improve conditions for all road users along West Marginal Way, including the completion of the missing sidewalk directly north of the Duwamish Tribe’s Long House, which has already been installed with asphalt (to be upgraded to concrete next year) and the installation of a pedestrian signal and crosswalk across West Marginal close to the Long House, which is set to be constructed starting in August or September.
The Court of Appeals of Washington – Division 2 (“Court”) addressed in a June 29th Decision a challenge to the Washington Department of Ecology’s (“WDE”) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (“CAFO”) Waste Discharge General Permit (state only) and Combined National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) and State Waste Discharge General CAFO Permit (combined permit). See
Washington State Dairy Federation, et al. v. State of Washington Department of Ecology, 2021 WL 2660024.
Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and other organizations (collectively “Puget Soundkeeper”) appealed the Washington Pollution Control Hearing Board’s (“Board”) Order approving the previously referenced CAFO Permits.
Most states are authorized to issue Clean Water Act NPDES Permits. Washington is one of such states. Consequently, the operator of a CAFO in an authorized state requests permit coverage from the appropriate state agency.
[ao-author: Emily Guillaume]
Last week, Washington became the latest state to address environmental justice (EJ) through legislation by adopting the
Climate Commitment Act into law. The HEAL Act, which is the more comprehensive of the two passed laws, was based on
recommendations of a state-funded environmental task force issued in fall of 2020 and seeks to remedy the effects of past disparate treatment of vulnerable communities. The Climate Commitment Act is a more targeted law that establishes a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cap-and-invest program with the goal of reducing GHG and criteria pollutants in overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution. Although the laws become effective on July 25, their major EJ-related requirements take effect at later dates.
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Washington State has joined a growing number of states that have adopted keystone environmental justice laws. On May 17, 2021, Governor Jay Inslee signed the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, E2SSB 5141, into law.
The new law recognizes that many communities experience disproportionately greater environmental health impacts as a result of multiple social, economic, and environmental stressors. Its principal objectives are to reduce and eliminate these disparities and to “remedy the effects of past disparate treatment of overburdened communities and vulnerable populations.” The law builds on recommendations in a 2020 report prepared by a state-funded environmental justice task force.[1] Over the next several years, the legislation will inject environmental justice considerations into state administrative agency actions. These considerations are likely to affect a range of agency activities and initiatives from