Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound A Prospectus on Areas of Collective Engagement as Prioritized by Select Communities of Color in Washington State. Prepared by Tomás Alberto Madrigal, Ph.D. and Sarah Bigelow December 2017 1 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................................................3 Executive Summary...................................................................................................................8 The Impact of Industrial Pollution on a Global Scale upon the Puget Sound......................9 The Impact of Consumer Waste and Plastics upon the Puget Sound..................................22 The Impact of Toxic Sites upon the Health of Washington Waterways..............................29 The Impact of Climate Change on the Puget Sound..............................................................32 Population Growth and Recovery in the Puget Sound...........................................................37 The Recovery of Salish Sea as a Sacred Site and Marine Sanctuary....................................42 Literature Referenced................................................................................................................50 2 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Introduction Front and Centered (formerly Communities of Color for Climate Justice) is a statewide coalition of organizations and groups rooted in communities of color, indigenous communities, and people with lower incomes. Front and Centered is on the frontlines of economic and environmental change. As thought leaders and organizers our agenda and strength is built with the grassroots community. Front and Centered works together to build power and capacity for a Just Transition that centers equity and is led by people of color. Purpose of this Report • • • • Provide a literature review that identifies and summarizes existing resources that speak specifically to issues where people of color communities or specific communities are impacted by the pollution of the Puget Sound or key pollutants impacting the health of the Puget Sound and its watershed. Identify 5 to 10 key issue areas from the listening session report on Puget Sound that also resonate with either 1) concerns from Tribes and indigenous knowledge 2) have an existing foundation in academic literature or scientific data 3) are actively under discussion in state policy or 4) are an existing part of the Front and Centered agenda. Description of each of these issues in a factsheet that references above issues with appropriate citations backing up key findings. Conclusion and Recommendations for the Front and Centered Steering committee on how to prioritize the issues identified and potential next steps. Participating Communities Washington Penninsula Westport, WA - Chaplains on the Harbor Aberdeen, WA - Chaplains on the Harbor Grays Harbor, WA - Chaplains on the Harbor Chaplains on the Harbor is a ministry of presence in Grays Harbor County, Washington. They are a group of chaplains who seek to build a freedom church of the poor by pastoring, organizing, and empowering the leadership of poor people in Grays Harbor County. Chaplains on the harbor stands alongside the poor of Grays Harbor who have lost resources, land, and spirit, by: • • • • Providing spiritual and material support to people in jail and on the streets. Creating wrap around support toward healing. Supporting the leadership and expertise of poor people. Building regenerative community ownership through community-led social enterprise and job creation. Lower Elwah - Na’ah Illahee Fund Na’ha Illahee (Mother Earth in the Chinook language), was established in 2005 with funding from an individual philanthropic leader who shared the vision of powerful Native female-centered activism and leadership. 3 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Our mission is to support and promote the leadership of indigenous women and girls in the ongoing regeneration of indigenous communities. We believe that Native women are at the heart of indigenous communities and that the vision, the initiatives and perseverance of Indigenous women should be supported with resources. We seek transformative change at the community level by supporting Indigenous women’s traditional models of leadership and organizing. We believe that stronger indigenous women leaders can determine their own priorities for the future and can protect our Mother Earth more effectively. We provide funding and support to Native women-led organizations and projects, youth training and environmental justice programming that helps advance sustainable indigenous cultures and collective capacities. We are teachers and learners, grantmakers and conveners, committed to remembering and revitalizing traditional values and practices rooted in indigenous ways of knowing and living. Our unique values and contribution comes from the diversity within our group - our ages, tribal affiliations, and experential knowledge. North Counties Bellingham, WA - Community to Community Community to Community believes that another world is possible adn that we are active participants with other popular people’s movements. We strive to reclaim our humanity by redefining power in order to end settler colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy in their external and internalized forms. Towards this end we: • • • • • • Empower under-represented peoples to have an equal voice in decision making processes Develop cross-cultural awareness Restore justice to our food, land and cultural practices Promote community relationships towards self-reliance Work in solidarity with those that strive towards human rights for all Rescue the value of feminine intellect and leadership 4 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Edmonds, Everett, Lynwood - Snohomish County NAACP Our mission at the Snohomish County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons of Snohomish County and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. Seattle Metro Seattle, WA - Entre Hermanos Entre Hermanos mission is to promote the health and well-being of the Latino Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and questioning community in a culturally appropriate environment through disease prevention, education, support services, advocacy and community building. 5 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound South Park, WA - Latino Community Fund Latino Community Fund’s mission is to cultivate new leaders, support cultural and community based non-profit organizations, and improve the quality of life for all Washingtonians. To achieve its mission and address the needs of Latinos, LCF programs create a vibrant community through civic engagement, healthy families, arts and culture. South King County Kent, Sea Tac, Federal Way, Des Moines - Mother Africa Mother Africa’s mission is to provide the skills necessary for African refugee and immigrant women and their children in Washington State to reach their highest potential. We are committed to building leadership, advocacy and community action capacity to reduce barriers to health, education, safety and economic independence while fostering an empowering environment that celebrates cultural diversity, families and socioeconomic growth. 6 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Southwestern Washington Vancouver, WA - OneAmerica OneAmerica’s vision is to advance the fundamental principles of democracy and justice through building power in immigrant communities, in collaboration with key allies. Initially named Hate Free Zone, the organization was founded immediately after September 11, 2001 to address the backlash in a post 9/11 world against immigrant communities of color, primarily Muslims, Arab Americans, East Africans, and South Asians. Since then, OneAmerica has expanded into the largest immigrant advocacy organization in Washington State, organizing in and advocating for and with a diversity of immigrant communities including Latino, African, and Asian. OneAmerica also plays a leading role in national coalitions within the immigrant rights and due process arenas. OneAmerica works to change the limits of what is possible, and all of our staff are grounded in the belief that anything is possible if we organize and advocate together. Eastern Washington Yakima, WA - Na’ha Illahee Na’ha Illahee (Mother Earth in the Chinook language), was established in 2005 with funding from an individual philanthropic leader who shared the vision of powerful Native female-centered activism and leadership. o Participants from Wanapum, Palouse, Sanich, Yakama, Warm Springs, Ojibwe, Shoshone, and Salish Kootenai cultures *A report on the listening sessions conducted by Front & Centered in 2017 preceding this report was prepared separately by Esther Min. *Front and Center affiliated organizations that did not conduct listening sessions that influenced this prospectus include Puget Sound Sage, Got Green and Hilltop Urban Gardens. In particular, Got Green and Puget Sound Sage's Our People, Our Planet, Our Power report from March 2016 influenced the thinking behind this prospectus. *Non-Front and Center affiliated organizations that had members present in the Community to Community Development Listening Session such as Familias Unidas por la Justicia, and non-affiliated organizations that did not participate in listening sessions such as the Consultants for Indian Progress and Northwest Detention Center Resistance also influenced the ideas regarding solutions presented in this prospectus that were not tied to listening sessions or existing literature. 7 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Executive Summary When scientists refer to human activity as an impact to the environment, it is often a euphemism for the impact of global capitalism has wrought upon the environment. Globalized capitalism has tremendously impacted the land use along the Puget Sound from a rich well-cultivated food shed into the global center of capital that now houses the financial centers of Washington's three leading industries: Aerospace (i.e. Boeing), Technology (i.e. Microsoft and Amazon), and Global Agriculture (i.e. apple and berry industries). To get to this point, the Puget Sound has been "subjected to contamination by military, industrial, residential, and agricultural effluents for over 100 years, resulting in some of the most toxic marine sediments in the Puget Sound" (Martin, Ruth A. and Elizabeth A. Nesbitt 2015; 97). According to a recent study, "wastewater discharge from cities and intensive livestock farms constitute the main organic pollutant loads in rivers" (Wen, Y. et al. 2017; 1). They further state that "climate-related organic river pollution requires a global perspective to articulate the geographic linkage of urbanization, intensive livestock farming, and freshwater variability" (ibid). In short, the impact of globalized capitalism to the pollution of the Puget Sound are layer upon layer of industrial grade pollution that has led to the premature death of species across the ecosystem provided by this estuary, from Chinook and Coho Salmon populations, to shellfish, to Orca populations. Recovery of the Puget Sound will only be feasible through the cessation of human activity engaged in global capitalism. This prospectus seeks to present a deeper understanding of human activity and provide supplemental materials highlighting some of the priorities proposed by Front & Centered listening sessions. The negative impact of Human Activity (aka Global Capitalism) in this prospectus will be broken down into four cascading sections to examine the impact of Industrial Production on the Global Scale, Consumer Pollution, and Toxic Sites on Washington Waterways which in many ways led to the conditions necessary for Climate Change, which has exacerbated the impact of these issues first introduced to the region by Settler Colonialism in the 1850s. These phenomena feed off of each other, and front and centered listening sessions engaged each topic to some extent. The fourth section seeks to understand the impact of all of the above on Indigenous, Black, Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander populations who make their home along the Puget Sound based on U.S. Census Data from 2010. This section seeks to understand and begins to outline three distinct front-line communities along the Puget Sound that have the capacity to engage in environmental justice campaigns because of the proximity to extreme polluters and because of the presence of grassroots organizations affiliated to Front and Centered. The final sections looks towards a path towards recovery by proposing an epistemological, legal and cultural shift in preexisting discussions towards a bioregional approach to recovery in the Puget Sound to see the path instead as the revitalization of the Puget Sound Ecosystem not only as an estuary, but as a sacred site, the Salish Sea. This final section shares existing traditional placeways and practices that are exercised by Coast Salish communities via the Annual Tribal Canoe Journey's that can serve as demonstration sites that can be further resourced, validated, and physically supported and amplified by surrounding People of Color communities and coalitions like Front & Centered. As Rosalinda Guillen has said in the recent past, "We must not only address the problem, but we must put forth a solution," that the role of institutions, coalitions and anchor organizations legitimately advancing solutions is to "follow the leadership of the most impacted communities" and not get in the way. Only in this way, collectively, can we advance projects of life and revitalization in the face of the certain death at the hands of globalized capitalism. 8 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Industrial Pollution on a Global Scale upon the Puget Sound The Industrial Toxics Release Inventory recorded by the Department of Ecology in Washington state showed that of the Counties that neighbored the Puget Sound, Pierce County Produced 1,637,647 lbs, King County produced 1,155,680 lbs, and Whatcom County produced 1,104,407 lbs of chemicals into the air, water, land, on site and in disposal. King County had the most facilities of all (72) but ranked 5th in total. The Westrock Tacoma Mill and Burlington Environmental, Inc Tacoma, and the U.S. Army Joint Base LewisMcChord were top industrial polluters in Pierce County. The Intalco Aluminum Corporation, BP Cherry Point Refinery, and Phillips 66 Ferndale Refinery were the top industrial polluters Whatcom County. Nucor Steel Seattle, Inc and the Rexin Beverage Can Company in Kent were top industrial polluters in King County. In Washington State, Benton County was the worst polluter of the state contributing over 10 million lbs of chemicals, 95% of that was coming from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Cowlitz County (Vancouver, WA) produced 2,892,296 lbs of chemicals released into the environment and Grays Harbor County released the most chemicals into the Pacific ocean, 684,037 lbs. These facilities only account for currently active industrial polluters in Washington State in industrial activities not related to farming. The next sections will look more closely into the pollution contributed by the fossil fuel (petrochemical) industry, the electricity industry, the transportation industry and the farming industry that ultimately impact Washington waterways. 9 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of the Petrochemical Industry on Pollution in the Puget Sound Scientists have found that "Industrial activities contribute to a decrease in air quality" in particular, "refineries and petrochemical industries release a number of pollutants into the surrounding air" (Ragothaman and Anderson 2017, 3). The industrial production of petrochemicals releases emissions at multiple points in production. These include process, combustion, fugitive, storage and handling, and auxillary emissions. These scientists found that "in urban areas close to refineries and petrochemical industries, the air quality is lowered by the combined effect of industrial emissions and traffic emissions" (ibid, 5). Further, in an inventory of greenhouse gases estimated for 2006, Production was projected to release 198 Million Metric tons of CO2 equivalent, Processing 39.5 MMTCO2e, Transmission and storage 52.6 MMTCO2e, and Distribution accounted for 27.3 MMTCO2e in the United States (ibid). The health impact of this type of industrial activity upon human beings is explained in the following passage, “Epidemiological studies have linked ambient PM2.5 levels with adverse health outcomes including aggravation of asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory and cardiovascular diseases leading to increased hospital admissions for stroke, diabetes, neurological disorders, and decreased life expectancy" (Bari et al 2017, 828). Front & Centered listening sessions reported similar symptoms in their communities. There are six oil refineries in production around the Puget Sound. There is a Phillips 66 refinery in Ferndale and BP refinery near Blaine. Two oil refineries exist in Anacortes, one is owned by Shell and the other by Tesoro. And two refineries situated on the Port of Tacoma's tide flats, operated by US Oil and Refining Company. The US Oil and Refining Company provides jet fuel via a pipeline directly to McChord Airforce Base. This pipeline ruptured on August 2, 2017, however went under the radar because the location of the explosion in Parkland was a relatively poor community. The delivery and distribution infrastructure of an international petrochemical industry has been consistently under fire by organized resistance from primarily indigenous communities across the nation. Most notably the movement to protect indigenous territory took place at Standing Rock against a Dakota Access Pipeline that was recently constructed there. In the Pacific Northwest, the Lummi tribe near Bellingham, successfully defeated the growth of the Cherry Point terminal into a global distribution port for coal. Their primary campaign revolved around a legal argument that the proposed site disturbed the burial ground of a community that died of the genocide imposed by colonialism via disease in the 1850s and was left in place. Their activity was supplemented by youth organized blockades of the coal trains attempting to come into the port and the formation of the No DAPL coalition that is now known as Red Line Salish Sea which organized people to boycott industrial bankers that were investing in the Dakota Access Pipe Line. Both of these latter organizations have been treated unfairly by law enforcement both locally and federally because of their direct actions including repression, systematic surveillance and lawsuits against those deemed as "leaders" by the prosecutors. In Tacoma, the Puyallup tribe has recently begun to take on the expansion of the presence of the petrochemical industry in the Port of Tacoma, which is adjacent to the Puyallup Tribal Reservation. The most recent manifestation of this has been surrounding the construction of a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facility by Puget Sound Electric. The 10 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound petrochemical industry is intimately connected to the Energy Production Industry, as refineries provide much of the fuel used to create energy. Community coalitions formed around the LNG facility include Red Line Tacoma. Unfortunately, there has been active disorganization of efforts towards collective action, primarly in the form of attempts to pit Tacoma's Black community against indigenous communities over the LNG issue. The reality is that Tacoma's Black community and Indigenous community are both invested in stemming the negative environmental impact of increasing the industrial presence of both the Petrochemical and the Energy industries. The Impact of Energy Production on Pollution in the Puget Sound There are four natural gas firing energy plants that surround the Puget Sound. One is located just northwest of Bellingham, two in Ferndale, and one just northwest of Mount Vernon. Three are operated by Puget Sound Energy and one by the Tensaka Corporation. The Ecogen Generating Station is located just east of the Port of Bellingham's waterfront redevelopment site. It was opened in 1993 and acquired by PSE in 1999. The facility has four generators, three gas turbines and one steam turbine. It is capable of producing 165 megawatts of electricity when running at full capacity. The PSE Whitehorn Generating Station is located near Ferndale. The facility has two "single cycle" combustion-turbines and can produce 147 megawatts of electricity when running at full capacity. The current turbines were installed in 1981, one turbine was overhauled in 2006 and the other in 2008. The Tensaka Generating Station in Ferndale adjacent to the Phillips 66 oil refinery. The facility was built in 1994 and sold in 2012. It produces 270 Megawatts of electricity when running at full capacity. The station's primary client is PSE. The PSE Fredonia Generating Station is located seven miles northwest of Mount Vernon. The facility contains four "single-cycle" generating units. The first two installed in the 1980s and the most recent in 2001. The facility can produce 314 megawatts of electricity when running at maximum capacity. Both the Petrochemical and Energy industries have attempted to portray the negative impact of production as a necessary cost of greater common good the industries have for the entire state. The impact of industrial production on the health of neighboring communities, however, is more profound than is portrayed. Chin-Yu Hsu and their team, for example, found that beyond impacting visibility within the atmosphere, industrial emissions of fine particulate matter, "play key roles in the formation of acid rain and climate change, and deteriorate the local and regional air quality," further they found that, "exposure to ambient PM2.5 has been recognized as one of the leading causes of adverse health outcomes in relation to cardiopulmonary morbidity and mortality" and that outdoor exposure to the fine particulate matter has been found to be carcinogenic to human beings (Hsu et a 2017, 204). For the above reasons, the Petrochemical and Energy Production Industries have become significant targets of frontline environmental organizing by indigenous people and people of color that happen to be the neighboring communities. Further investing in these communities that are already organizing is an important next step for Front & Centered when it comes to the revitalization of the Puget Sound. 11 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Hydroelectric Dams on Pollution in the Puget Sound PSE operates 10 dams with tributaries that empty into the Puget Sound. Five of these are on the Skagit River, one is on the Puyallup River, two are on the Nisqually River and two are on the Skokomish River. Though most of these dams are way upstream, it is of note that those on the Nisqually River and Skokomish River both impact directly rural enclaves of Native Americans where indigenous people make up over 50% of the people who live there. Of note should be the decommissioning and demolition of the Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon (aka Upper Elwha) Dam's for habitat restoration due to the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act of 1992 authorized by the US. Federal Government. The Elwha Dam was fully removed on March 2012. The Glines Canyon Dam was removed in August 2014 and was the tallest dam ever to be intentionally breached. The project is expected to bring full recovery to the ecosystem within 15-20 years. The initiative has implications in not only restoring salmon habitat, but also increasing elk habit through the draining of the artificial lakes. UW studies have also found that the re-sedimentation of the Elwha river has led to the capture of carbon that is usually released into the atmosphere, further study is needed in order to find out the complete impact of decommissioning and demolishing more dams. Considering the success of the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act similar projects along the Skokomish River and Nisqually River would likely result in similar success. Further study is needed to examine how to go about demolishing and decommissioning more complex systems such as the dams along the Skagit River, the Colombia River and the Snake River. For Front & Centered, it would be worth investing in the exploration of the feasibility of decommissioning and demolishing dams on the Skokomish and Nisqually Rivers that are tributaries to the Puget Sound. The Elwha River Ecosystems and Fisheries Restoration Act of 1992 serves as an example and demonstration of the larger public good resulting from decommissioning and demolition of dams upon the health of the entire ecosystem. In order to be able to advance successful campaigns on these fronts, 1. it would be crucial to have the support and leadership of the tribal communities in Skokomish and Nisqually who are impacted by these energy industry enterprises (dams) and 2. support the formation of anchor organizations to activate larger solidarity communities similar to the Red Line coalitions in Bellingham and Tacoma. 12 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of a Nuclear Power Plant on Washington Waterways The Columbia Generating Station at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the only Nuclear commercial energy facility in Washington State. It is owned and operated by Energy Northwest. The facility is licensed to produce 3,486 megawatts, it produces 1,107 megawatts of electricity, which is about 10 percent of the electricity generated in the state. The Columbia Generating Station has been producing energy since 1984. The site has a short-term spent fuel pool that is able to accommodate 2,658 spent fuel assemblies, since no projected operations exist for long term storage, they created an on-site dry cask storage installation. Thirty-six casks have been loaded and stored as of 2014. The Columbia Generating Station has two emergency planning zones. One is a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles where people are susceptible to immediate exposure through the air, and the other is an ingestion pathway zone where people can experience prolonged exposure of 50 miles. Native American and Latino Communities are directly impacted by the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Exposure to radioactive pollution can occur in two ways, immediate exposure can lead to negative health impacts within an individual's lifetime, including developing cancer, birth defects and ultimately leading to pre-mature mortality. Prolonged exposure can lead to negative generational level impacts including genetic level changes and/or birth defects and the pre-mature mortality of future generations. The Latino Urban Enclaves of the Tri-Cities and Yakima and 11 Latino rural enclaves exist within a 50 mile radius of Hanford and the Yakama Nation Tribal Reservation has existed adjacent to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation since it was created and more recently was allowed to purchase part of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in what was described as the largest land deal for Native American tribes since the original territory from which their ancestors were dispossessed in the mid 19th century via Treaty at gunpoint with the United States of America. The Impact of the Transportation Industry on Pollution in the Puget Sound A major industrial contributor to the PM2.5 and CO2 pollution content in the air quality of the area surrounding the Puget Sound is the Transportation Industry. Whether Maritime, Automobile, Air all contribute tremendously towards pollution on the Puget Sound. A 2010 study found "positive associations between PM2.5 and visits to emergency rooms for asthma" (Mar et al. 2010, 447). Though the data analyzed in this study did not result in new findings regarding the use of diesel powered generators, the data does reflect early health impacts of what in 2006 was designated a non-attainment area for air quality. A study in 2013 found that "women whose residences were within 50 m of a freeway or highway had an 11% increased chance of having a [small for gestational age] SGA delivery," based on the 367,046 sample that they examined in the Puget Sound (Sathyanarayana et al. 2011, 459). 13 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Diesel Emissions from Maritime Traffic in the Puget Sound A 2005 Puget Sound Air Emissions Inventory found that, "maritime-related resources accounted for 28% of the diesel particulate matter, 4% of PM2.5, 1% of CO emissions, 11% of oxides of nitrogen, and 33% of sulfer dioxide" (Mar et al. 2010, 445). Maritime traffic is a global phenomenon on the Puget Sound, for example "more than 70% of the marine cargo moving between the lower 48 states and Alaska is handled by the Port of Tacoma" (Ibid). Front & Centered listening sessions in Snohomish County and Seattle were particularly concerned with the diesel emissions of maritime traffic from cargo ships and the regions complex ferry system. Further, indigenous communities were concerned with the impact of traffic on fish and wildlife populations that live in the Puget Sound. The connection between this and the Petrochemical and Energy Industries is worth further exploration. State initiatives such as Maritime Blue are moving policy to think about electrifying the ferry fleet, however, this is only a small portion of the diesel emitted by multiple maritime related sources. Emissions from Automobile Traffic in the Puget Sound The negative impact upon respiratory health for those who live within 150 m of highways and freeways has been well documented in the literature. Scientists identified that "more than 11 million people in the United States live within 150 m of a major highway, where air pollution concentrations can be elevated above background levels" (Pedde, Szpiro and Adar 2017, 564). Everything from low birth weights, to heart disease, to increased intensity of asthma to pre-mature death are positively associated with living near highways and freeways. Scientists explain that, "short-term exposures to air pollution generated by all combustion sources have repeatedly been linked to adverse health effects, including cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, and mortality" (ibid). Further that, "studies examining traffic indicators show positive associations with asthma, impaired lung function, total and cardiovascular mortality, and cardiovascular morbidity" (ibid). The Pedde et al. study was conducted within the confines of the Puget Sound examining 10,966 deaths that occurred between 2009 and 2013 (Pedde et al 2017, Figure 1; 565). The study found that 1,228 people, or "approximately 13% of the 9,449 decedents lived within 150 m" of area roadways died of conditions that could have been negatively impacted by exposure to emissions in the Puget Sound (ibid, 567). Puget Sound Sage and Got Green found that 60% of the people that they surveyed were negatively impacted from exposure to diesel exhaust (Got Green and Puget Sound Sage 2016, 20). Front & Centered listening sessions also address the issue of emissions pollution due to traffic as negatively impacting their health, in particular the Snohomish and South King County listening sessions. The negative impact of industrial air pollution is made worse by the inclusion of air traffic emissions. Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American Pacific Islander communities tend to be clustered in areas where this type of overlap occurs in the Puget Sound. 14 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Air traffic and Commercial Airports One of the primary concerns brought up by the NAACP listening session participants involved the construction of an airport in their vicinity and the concern of increased CO2 emissions. Anecdotally, the Mother Africa listening session also reported unexplained respiratory ailments among the younger population of immigrants that lived around the Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The literature mentions that there are clear EPA regulations when it comes to commercial airports. One study conducted in 2003 by a team from UW and WSU attempted to measure Particulate Matter and O3 that was emitted by air traffic in the Puget Sound. In their study the highest levels of O3 were recorded in rural areas including Enumclaw, Mt Rainier, North Bend, and La Grande, whereas the lowest surface levels of O3 were detected in Seattle (Snow et al. 2003, 4023). The team interpreted the data to be influenced primarily by wildfires burning upwind, however, based on the evidence they did not have access to yet in 2003, it is worth mentioning that industrial farming practices in rural areas have also been found to contribute tremendously to greenhouse gas emissions that is likely a more reasonable explanation for the higher levels of O3 recorded over places like Enumclaw, for example. Tacoma and the adjacent parts of Pierce County was considered a non-attainment area for air quality from 2006 until 2015. The area is adjacent to the McChord Airforce base. The brunt of the intervention made to reach attainment had to do with limiting the use of wood burning stoves rather than reducing the air traffic from the military base. In fact, none of the materials produced even mentioned the McChord Airforce base as a contributer to the Non-Attainment Status of the region, the Military is exempt from EPA regulations that are imposed upon commercial facilities. Recently (2017), scientists have found that airport-related emissions contribute to the airborne particulate matter in urban regions at a rate that is higher than traffic emissions. Several studies, for example looked at the emission rates produced by Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in comparison to the emissions from the adjacent notorious freeways. They state, “our study demonstrated that the LAX airport has a significantly higher impact on air quality degradation within the neighborhoods in its vicinity compared to the three major freeways (i.e. I-110, I105, and I-405) traversing that area" (Shirmohammadi et al. 2017, 92). The scientists emphasized that, “it is now well known that air quality degradation in proximity of airports is a real public health hazard, with a number of recent reports specifically linking aviation activities with morbidity and premature mortality as well as adverse lung effects in asthmatics (Ashok et al., 2013; Yim et al., 2013; Habre et al., 2016)” (Ibid, 83). The scientists caution that airports located near heavily populated urban areas have a significant impact on the environment and health of the people that live in the area. Another team of scientists quantified the impact of aircraft emissions on human mortality in North America, he found that, “premature mortalities due to aircraft emissions within the landing and takeoff (LTO) regime (defined to be within 3000 ft above ground level) have been most recently estimated at 650 early deaths in North America, accounting for 43% of total aviation-attributable health impacts in the region with monetized damages of USD $3.07 billion (Yim et al., 2015)" (Asok et al. 2017, 287-88). 15 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound This team identified Environmental Protection Agency requirements for commercial airports located near nonattainment areas such as the one identified above in Pierce County, "Airports located within non-attainment areas in the US - i.e. where pollution levels exceed the US National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) - are required by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to implement measures that bring pollution levels into compliance (40 C.F.R. §51.110)” (Asok et al. 2017, 287-88). Unfortunately, it appears that military bases are considered exempt from similar legislation meant to protect vulnerable populations. The team of scientists did come up with two significant areas that could reduce emissions in airports close to densely populated urban areas: 1. "Pushback Control: The application of a 25-min gate hold allowance-that is, delaying the aircraft pushback by up to 25 min - minimizes fuel burn/CO2 while reducing PM2.5 and O3 costs (accounting for time-varying atmospheric conditions) lowers them by an additional 2.7% and 8.5% respectively, beyond fuel burn minimization (these are ～38% and ～40% lower than the costs without gate holds, respectively)" (Ibid). 2. "Reduced-thrust takeoffs: De-rated takeoffs at 75% thrust reduce NOx emissions by 18% and PM2.5 costs by 18% (up to 21.6% when takeoff thrusts are optimized) over the full flight relative to full-thrust takeoffs." (Ibid). The Impact of Industrial Farming on Pollution Agricultural and rural areas make up about 30-35 percent of the Puget Sound Region. Scientists warned back in 1992 that "the nation's estuaries are at risk of further deterioration from land use change and intensification" (219). Front and Centered listening sessions shared the negative impact of industrial farming practices on their traditional wild harvest sites, fishing waters and hunting grounds. Farmworker communities shared the takeaway point that if they were being exposed to multiple toxins in the fields, all of that had to runoff into the Puget Sound at some point. The Washington Food Systems Roundtable prospectus proposed a cultural change for farmers to incentivize the implementation of land and water management practices that reduced the impact of pollution from industrial monocultural farming practices. These included "reducing agricultural run-off by identifying, incentivizing and implementing best land and water management practices," reducing the "use of fresh/palatable water in food production and post-harvest handling through water conservation techniques," and by "identifying, incentivizing and implementing riparian area restoration and conservation," as well as maintaining, "existing efforts to clean up brownfield sites contaminated from agricultural and industrial practices" (Colman, V et al. 2015: p. 14). Though their prospectus invited cultural change for farmers, the Washington State Department of Agriculture, the Washington State Conservation Commission, the Washington State Department of Ecology withdrew their support for the prospectus just prior to publication because they saw the cultural change proposed negatively impacting the bottom line for industrial farmers. These governmental agencies are supposed to be non-biased and serve the public good, however it was clear from the letters sent to the Washington Food Systems Round Table on behalf of multiple agents of the agricultural industry lobby that these agencies were beholden to their special interests. The struggle for Farm Worker justice, thus as documented in California by Laura Pulido (1996) has always been a struggle for environmental justice, more than a labor struggle. Some of its greatest champions in Washington have passed on including Tomás Villanueva (deceased 2014) and Minnie Pesina (deceased 2006) arguably because of the very thing they spent a lifetime struggling against, as many farm workers have passed along with them. The mortality rate of farm workers in Washington State is not currently disaggregated (separated into farm workers as a category, only laborers and orchard laborers) by the Department of Health. It is notable to say on chronic illnesses, only those deaths that occurred at the workplace were counted as workplace deaths, deaths that occurred because of chronic disease that was caused by farm labor was not recorded as such. Further, funding for the government to be responsible for recording any data at all was structurally eliminated beginning shortly after the formation of the Washington Grower’s League in 1985 that functioned as a high capacity 16 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound local grower lobby with powerful advocates in state legislature such as anti-farmworker representative Irving Newhouse. This local lobby began to function alongside the federal grower’s lobby known as the Farm Bureau. Washington state and the federal government collect data that is relevant to farm worker health. Farm worker advocates such as Tomás Villanueva, Martin Yañez, and Minnie Pesina were key figures in making early advances in farm worker health in Washington state since the 1970s. The three main issues that they and their community were able to champion included 1) farmworker housing, 2) occupational safety, and 3) exposure to pesticides. They were able to impact these issues on a structural level, through the state institutions in which they worked including Labor and Industries, the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, and La Clinica wich was supported by pressure from allies on the outside including the United Farm Workers of Washington and Radio KDNA and La Escuelita in Granger,WA. It is because of the inside/outside strategy that these grassroots community leaders engaged with farmworker advocates that State agencies, including some that have been recently compromised such as the Washington State Department of Agriculture began to collect and publish data on pesticide exposure from 2000 (with records back to 1995) until 2012. What this means in regard to advancing any campaigns seeking to mitigate the pollution generated by industrial agriculture industry in Washington state is to be cautious around these particular agencies. Further, experience in working with agencies, is that they tend to be large institutions that are made up of many people some friendly and others hostile to recovery efforts. It is important to cultivate insiders within these agencies that can help move efforts along and to continuously apply outside pressure. The Impact of Nitrate Pollution on Water Quality Industrial dairy farms are one significant source of nitrates that seep down into the groundwater or runoff into waterways that are tributaries to the Puget Sound. Andrea Rodgers J.D. estimated that there are "approximately 415 unlined manure lagoons in Puget Sound counties, many adjacent to, or in close proximity with, the waters that feed Puget Sound" (Rodgers, Andrea 2016, 9). Water that moves down into the groundwater from precipitation or irrigation is called recharge, this recharge can carry down contaminants from land use activities. Nitrates are one of these contaminants that can come from chemical fertilizers, manure, and biosolids. Nitrate contamination is a public health concern because drinking water with high nitrates is particularly risky for young children, women who are pregnant and the elderly as consuming water with high levels of nitrates reduce the amount of oxygen that red blood cells are able to carry in the body. For pregnant women, this also increases the risk of spontaneous abortion or certain birth defects. According to the Washington Nitrate Prioritization Project report released in 2016 by the Washington State Department of Ecology there are two areas of concern around the Puget Sound because of moderately high nitrate contamination. In the Northwestern Washington Puget Sound Lowlands, they found that "the greatest known groundwater contamination by nitrates for this area is within the Sumas aquifer in Whatcom County" with the western part of the Skagit Valley of particular vulnerability. For the Southwestern Washington Puget Sound Lowlands areas of interest for the Department of Ecology included the Central Pierce County Sole Source Aquifer and the Scatter Creek aquifer area in Thurston County. According to Andrea Rodgers, "the Samish, Stillaguamish, and Nooksack watersheds have consistently had the highest annual yields of nitrogen relative to their size of all Puget Sound watersheds," in fact, "the Nooksack River discharges the largest nitrogen load of all U.S. rivers north of Puget Sound" (Rodgers 2016, 10). All of these rivers 17 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound are flowing into the Puget Sound and represent the tremendous impact that industrial agricultural pollution has on the Puget Sound. Figure 24: Recommended Draft Nitrate Priority Areas (2016) Both Na'ah Illahee and Community to Community Development identified that both farmworkers and indigenous people living on reservations are concerned over the pollution of drinking water to the point that they are using bottled water rather than tap water. In 2007, 38% of people of color in the United States had a higher likelihood of nitrogen-dioxide exposure. The findings of the Washington State Department of Ecology show that both farmworkers and reservation based indigenous people in Washington State are front line communities when it comes to nitrate contamination in the groundwater. The figures above demonstrate the proximity of Latino Majority enclaves and Tribal reservations to areas of high nitrate contamination in Washington State. 18 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Farm Runoff into the Puget Sound According to a report prepared by the Western Environmental Law Center in 2016 regarding Agricultural Pollution in the Puget Sound argued that "unsustainable agricultural practices are degrading the waters that feed the Puget Sound" because, "there is no regulatory backstop to ensure agricultural operations comply with state water quality laws" (Rodgers 2016, 1). Rodgers found that animal manure and commercial fertilizers (both sources of NO3) had been categorized as the two largest nutrient sources to the Puget Sound basin in 1998. She cites that the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) reported, "agricultural wastes originating in the Nooksack River watershed are an actual, as opposed to a potential pollution source, and represent a high probability of being the principle source of fecal coliform contamination in Portage Bay" (DOH 1997). According to Rodgers, "research has confirmed that elevated nitrogen concentrations in streams can be caused by agricultural activities in upstream watersheds" (Rodgers 2016, 9). Another impact of higher concentrations of fecal matter in streams and the Puget Sound is an increase in algal blooms that cause oxygen depletion and can cause fish and other aquatic life to avoid the area completely. Fisherfolk that participated in the listening sessions were particularly concerned with this negative impact upon traditional fishing grounds. Further, indigenous people engaged in wild harvests and hunting alike expressed that cattle cultivation and grazing negatively impacted the health of wild harvest sites and traditional hunting grounds as well. Pesticide Contamination In between 2010-2011 there were 184 violations validated by the Washington State Department of Agriculture out of 300 complaints. 2011 was one of the last years that the Washington State Department of Agriculture published the data that they collected. Dan Newhouse had served as the head of the department prior to his election as a State Representative and he was responsible for shrinking that program in benefit of the industrial agricultural lobby. The figure (figure 2) above shows how many of these violations were found to have impacted ground or surface water. The following figure (figure 9) shows what kinds of chemicals farmworkers were exposed to between 2010-2011. Insecticides tend to be administered via air upon vast stretches of monoculture cultivations, while herbicides are chemicals applied more locally to specific wild plants that are considered "weeds" by industrial farmers. 19 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound It is important to understand that chemical treatment is authorized in industrial farming practices to include some contamination of the surrounding lands and to human beings who work in the fields. State agencies are concerned primarily with providing education and technical assistance to help bring industrial farms into compliance for polluting within what is allowed by law. The Impact of Pesticide Drift on Washington Waterways One of the most common ways that larger ecosystems and unintended human beings are exposed to pesticides is via pesticide drift. This occurs when insecticides are applied aerially to a monoculture cultivation and the wind or pilot error causes a drift of the pesticides away from the target area. Between 2002 and 2011 there have been 331 confirmed cases of pesticide drift in Washington State. 20 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Because insecticides wash away with irrigation or rain the excess insecticides are liable to leech into the groundwater table near industrial monoculture sites as well as to wash away into tributary rivers with storm waters that drain into the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound. In eastern Washington, the Snake River is considered one of the most contaminated rivers in the northern hemisphere, it dumps out into the Columbia River and in turn into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake and Columbia Rivers are also heavily dammed which exacerbates the issue, allowing more time for runoff to settle into the sediments trapped behind the dams. This complexity is likely also occuring on the heavily dammed Skagit River that flows into the Puget Sound. The combination of insecticide pollution in tributary rivers combined with nitrate contamination from animal manure and the over-application of commercial fertilizers is the result of industrial growing practices that tend to only be controlled via incentives. Because this data could not be refuted by the industrial agriculture industry in Washington state. Recent legislative efforts have taken place to attempt to pass laws that govern pesticide drift. For the most part, only the lawsuits of impacted farmworkers advanced by firms that provide services pro-bono or are paid via the settlements reached with the industrial agricultural corporations have been able to apply steady pressure. The grower lobby of course continues to seek to limit the liability of their member corporations in legislation, going so far as seeking special loop holes to get around the regulations that have been won via litigation. To stem the impact of pollution by industrial farming activities, it would be necessary to move beyond an incentive/compliance model and towards making agricultural firms pay for their destruction and contributing financially to revitalization efforts as a cost of doing business, rather than continuing the culture of paying fines as the cost of business that they have become used to only on the most egregious of violations. 21 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Consumer Waste and Plastics upon the Puget Sound Almost every Front & Centered listening session expressed concern with increase consumer waste, regarding plastics bags and water bottles that were visible on the beach and on the floor of Washington waterways including the Puget Sound. Similar to the worry consumers show about their individual impact on pollution, the existing literature does not reflect that anything below an actual industry is directly responsible for the contamination and pollution that we seek to remediate in the Puget Sound and Washington waterways. Front and Centered communities are well aware that the deterioration of coastal ecosystems, including the estuary of the Puget Sound is real and in need of immediate intervention (Landahl et al 1997). In 2014, sociologists found that "women, young people, and those who believe pollution threatens Puget Sound are more likely to support policy measures such as increased enforcement and spending on restoration" (Safford et al. 2014, 757). The same team also found that "self-identified Republicans and individuals who view current regulations as ineffective tend to oppose governmental actions aimed at protecting and restoring Puget Sound" (ibid). Herein lies the fundamental contradiction in regard to garnering public support for the recovery of the Puget Sound. Those that have the least responsibility for contaminating and polluting the Puget Sound see it of utmost priority, advocating as we saw in the listening sessions towards Zero Waste projects and learning how to recycle as public education campaigns for their youth (ibid). This is reflected in the overwhelming support of policy initiatives to recycle, ban plastic bags in grocery stores and to electrify ferries operating in the Puget Sound. Meanwhile, those that identify with the captains of industry, those that hold the most responsibility for the recovery and remediation of the contamination and pollution that they and their ancestors have caused over the last few generations since colonization are not willing even to acknowledge that there is a crisis, much less engage in action to remediate the issue (ibid). The literature reflects this knowledge gap. There are studies that address consumer waste in the form of marine debris that is composed mostly of human produced land-based garbage in the ocean, but this phenomena effects primarily areas that are within reach of ocean currents. According to a longitudinal study on beaches in the United States from 2001 to 2006, "land based debris made up 54.2% of all collected items (including 29.1% plastic straws and 13.9% ballons), with 34.4% of items from general sources (not specifically land or marine based, including 20.6% plastic bottles and 12.1% plastic bags), and only 11.3% of items from ocean based sources" (Schoof, Rosalind and Jesse DeNike 2017, 524). Even so, the extent of public support for the mitigation of these issues through plastic bag bans and increased initiatives to recycle show that there is at least a 10-year lag between the moment a problem is documented and public action. The role of Front & Centered would be to calibrate the connection between public knowledge and litigation so that People of Color are able to advance interventions and initiatives that directly impact they bioregion where they live, (i.e the Puget Sound may be ocean water, but it's a completely different ecological zone than the Pacific Coast). If there is capacity, it would be important to examine this issue as it relates to Washington state coastal areas such as the Mouth of the Columbia River and the Aberdeen/Grays Harbor area considering they had the highest amount of industrial toxics dumping out into the ocean. Likewise, Front & Centered may find accomplices in the Quinault and Makah Nations who are situated on Washington's north Pacific coast. Front & Centered would need to necessarily take a culturally appropriate approach to environmental justice that values precolonial cultural practices around fishing and whaling that mainstream environmentalist and animal rights organizations have historically clashed with these first nations, resulting in their alienation. It is likely that the calendar will be long-term work rather than campaign driven, and that the focus in this region by Front & Centered should be primarily around building relationships than making promises that may not be met in the future. 22 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The general public is responsible for producing human waste water in densely urbanized areas, but it is the responsibility of the local governments and waste management agencies not to let it spill into Washington waterways. Much of the micro plastics found in the marine environment escape treatment because they are too small for the filters used in waste water treatment facilities. Further the issue of the overpopulation of urban centers is driven primarily by corporate development and the resulting displacement of the communities that once inhabited the areas that are being developed for density. A flawed interpretation of climate change data, however, misinforms the public that human overpopulation (high birth rates), rather than the human activity of "industrial capitalism on a global scale" is the culprit of the negative impact on the health of the planet. This interpretation is not only flawed, but it serves the purpose of advancing the interests of capitalism and coloniality, by blaming the victims of industrial pollution for the crisis and leaving them with the bill and imperative to clean up. The Impact of Derelict Fishing Nets on marine life mortality in the Puget Sound In the Puget Sound, commercial fishing gear remains in the marine environment for years. This fishing gear includes recreational or commercial fishing nets, lines, pots, and traps that were lost or abandoned in the marine environment they were used (Good et al 2010, 39). This type of debris entangles and kill marine organisms, over 32,846 marine animals have been recovered from Washington's inland waters between 2002 and 2010 (Ibid). Of these marine animals 55% (17,062) were dead and 45% (14,216) were alive. Of these, all of the marine birds and mammals were dead, whereas only 7% (76) of the marine fishes found in derelict gillnets were alive, 93% (960) were dead (Ibid, 44). Over 870 gillnets (see figure 3 from Good et al. 2010) were recovered from Washington waterways between 2002 and 2010, most were from the northern Puget Sound, many had been derelict for years (Ibid). Worldwide the problem has worsened because since the 1950s rather than making the equipment from natural fibers, the industry has made these materials from synthetic materials that are "functionally resistant to degradation in the water, and, once discarded or lost, this gear may remain in the marine environment for decades" (Ibid). A follow up cost:benefit analysis conducted by Kristen V.K. Gilardi et al in 2010 calculated that "4368 crab entangled during the impact lifetime of the net, at a loss of $19,656 of Dungeness crab to the commercial fishery, compared to $1358 in costs to remove a given gillnet," yields a "cost:benefit ratio of 1:14.5" (Gilardi et al 2010, 376). This research team used a cost:benefit analysis to encourage lawmakers to act, "in order to reduce the threat that derelict fishing gear poses to marine life and underwater habitats, federal and state agencies and organizations are removing significant amounts of derelict fishing gear from marine waters in the United States," in "Washington state over 85 tons of derelict gear, primarily crab pots and gill nets, have been removed from the Puget Sound in 2002" (Ibid, 377). This cost:benefit analysis did not reflect the "indirect value of the restoration of habitat and the resulting assumed increase in productivity of commercial and non-commercial species and other species important to the integrity of a healthy ecosystem" (ibid, 381). Though a cost:benefit analysis only sees value in capitalist exchange value over life, many of the People of Color communities engaged in the Front & Centered listening sessions this summer valued life over exchange value. Front & Centered would need to see this type of research as a tool, a means to an end in possibly moving legislators towards doing the right thing when it comes to the recovery of the Puget Sound. 23 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Industrial Microplastics on Marine life in the Puget Sound Microplastics are commonly defined as particles less than 5mm in diameter. Oceanographers have documented between 200 to 9,200 particles/ cubic meter of micro plastics in ocean water samples collected off the Washington coast (Christenson 2017). Shellfish biologists have found that most every shellfish that they have dissected contain a trace amount of microplastics (ibid). Eighty percent of the microplastics that Shellfish Biologists and Oceanographers have found in the Puget Sound are fiber fragments from clothing and industrial plastic gear (ibid). Among the other common types of microplastics are fragments, microbeads (used in soaps and toothpaste), nurdles (plastic pellets that can be melted down into any shape), and polystyrene beads (styrofoam). These microplastics are ingested and consumed by the lowest strata of the marine food chain and make their way up to impact larger marine species and ultimately human beings (ibid). Shellfish aquaculture in the Puget Sound is a major source of clams, oysters, and mussels in the United States and Canada (Schoof, Rosalind and Jesse DeNike 2017, 522). Shellfish Aquaculture utilizes a lot of plastic infrastructure, "marine Plastic degradation is greatest on beaches with high UV exposure. Rosalind Schoof and Jesse DeNike, it is important to note, are corporate scientists that have defended industrial aquaculture firms for quite some time now, their interpretation, though biased, is based on real data. This is why it is important for Front & Centered to invest in the interpretation of raw data by scientists and social scientists that are biased towards the People of Color communities that they serve rather than the industries and traditional scientists and social scientists biased towards the maintenance of white supremacy and the interests of capitalism (there is no such thing as a non-biased scientist or social scientist, they are all products of the society from which they come and the limitations of the families that raised them). Shellfish biologists in Canada are currently studying the extent to which their industrial practices impact micro plastic contamination on the Salish Sea (ibid). So far scientists have identified that, "land-based sources still predominate" as sources of marine plastic debris as demonstrated in the sections above. The literature that specifically deals with the Puget Sound, focuses primarily on the negative impact of derelict fishing nets and the presence of industrial microplastics on marine species in the Puget Sound. Studies have found that there is an "average of 0.045 microplastic particle per gram wet weight of sediment" and that it is primarily made up of "polypropylene blue rope used by the oyster farming industry" (Ibid, 524). Other sources include the PVC tubes used for the infrastructure in shellfish farming. Though it is difficult to trace pollution at such a small scale back to the source, scientists are actively attempting to do the impossible and have been able to compare the samples that they collect in the Puget Sound to a database of plastics used industrially for the production of clothing. They have made inroads towards moving upstream in beginning to work with clothing manufacturers to produce garments that use materials that are less likely to end up in the watersheds and marine wildlife that we consume (Christenson 2017). Front & Centered listening sessions suggested outreach to communities of color in order to distribute filters to individual households, it would be worth further investigation if there are household level filters that are more likely to capture micro plastic particles from washing clothes and if so, follow up with legislation that seeks requiring such filters at industrial facilities and public laundry mats. There are multiple leverage points that coalitions such as Front & Centered may be able to impact in regard to microplastic pollution in the Puget Sound coming from commercial clothing production and industrial aquaculture (upstream) to supporting research into creating a filtration system and changing consumer behavior in purchasing clothing less likely to contribute to pollution (downstream). The combination of preventative or "upstream" approaches with "downstream" or immediate solutions to the problem of microplastic pollution can lead to recovery in the Puget Sound around microplastics in particular. Considering the amount of resources that the Canadian government is providing on the topic, and the urgency of the issue in the United States as demonstrated by the invitation at the request of the aquaculture industry for their scientists Schoof and DeNike to provide commentary on the issue, legislation on this particular topic is likely already in the pipeline. 24 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Coastal Urbanization on Waste Water Infrastructure and sewage spills Coastal areas in the United States are experiencing a tremendous increase in population and land use change (Spirandelli 2015). The population in the Puget Sound region is expected to grow by 1 million people within the next 15 years (Rodgers 2016, 3). This rapid urbanization increases density in cities, and also in the surrounding communities as described by the Mother Africa listening session in particular. One of the primary areas where consumer waste appears in the Puget Sound is through the waste water infrastructure of these urban areas that are increasing in density. More often than not, existing infrastructure for wastewater is not designed to treat the amount of wastewater that is produced by an urbanizing population. This often results in spills as these facilities receive more wastewater than they are able to process. According to the Associated Press, 30 million gallons of raw sewage and untreated runoff have poured into the Puget Sound since February 2017 from West Point wastewater treatment plant. In recent years, there have been almost yearly spills from wastewater treatments in South Seattle into Lake Washington just south of Seward Park. This is only a phenomena of urban sewer systems. Raw sewage spills into the Washington waterways can increase algal growth. Harmful algal blooms release toxins that reduce the ability of fish and other aquatic life to find food and often cause entire populations to leave a geographic area (Boddulla et al. 2016). This same study found that algal blooms are increased by human activity. Front and Centered communities of color also identified the negative impact of algal blooms on other waterways in Washington state. Septic Systems predominate as the wastewater infrastructure in parts of Seattle that have not yet been annexed into the city sewer system, and many of the front-line POC communities along the I-5 corridor in South King County and North Pierce County as well as non-urban areas of Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom Counties. These are the communities that participated in Front & Centered listening sessions that shared sub-standard living conditions and the experience of overcrowding. Similar to the situation with to urban sewer system wastewater treatment plants overflowing into Washington waterways, Septic systems also were not designed for density, septic systems also fail and rather than spilling onto waterways, septic systems can leak into the water table that often supplies drinking water to these areas via wells. Farmworkers in Whatcom and Skagit counties, Immigrants in South King County and indigenous communities that participated in Front & Centered listening sessions highlighted the contamination of their drinking water as a primary concern. Data about Nitrate contamination in these communities due to industrial agricultural practices (presented in section above) is compounded by the densification (or urbanization of rural communities) and the resulting overcrowding due to the lack of housing stock in these areas. Spirandelli shares that "studies identify pollutants from failing septic tanks, leaky sewer pipes, wastewater treatment plants and domestic and wild animal feces in stormwater run-off" (Spirandelli 2015, 1091). Spriandelli points to evidence that "septic density in watersheds with low amounts of urban development lead to contamination in coastal waters" (ibid). Front-line communities are concentrated in areas with low amounts of urban development that because of their displacement from urban centers. Daniele Spirandelli (2015) explained that "rapid urbanization in the region is the leading driver of land cover change," she continues, "to accomodate growing populations, coastal areas have rapidly transformed into suburban and urban environments, with land-based pollution impacting the health and ecosystem function of the estuarine environment" (Ibid, 1096). The purpose of the Estuary of the Puget Sound is essential for the health of the ecosystem of the entire bioregion. Community advocacy organizations such as Community to Community Development for example have been advocating for land use patterns that preserve wetlands and shifting industrial practices towards more sustainable agroecological models. Hilltop Urban Gardens in Tacoma is providing a demonstration of how sustainable agroecology centered urban farming is feasible in the Puget Sound. The extent of the urbanization of land-use in the Puget Sound is modeled by Spirandelli in the following figure: 25 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound aSDS Spirandelli classified watersheds as urban (red), Suburban (yellow) and rural (green) in a cloropleth map that I superimposed on the map I created regarding POC populations in the region. The watersheds on the map were classified by the amount of area dominated by one of the three classes, with any watershed that had a 50% or more labeled in the majority, these sites ended up being the 90 sample sites where she collected data. 26 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Spirandelli found that "most parcels on a wastewater treatment system (87%) are residential properties. These residential lands include single-family and multi-family residences" (ibid). She found that of the sampled watersheds, "there are a total of 44,629 residential properties either hooked up to a sewer or septic system" and that, "most of these residences and the population (86%) are on a sewer system" (ibid). She found that over 95% of urban residences were on a sewer system, that there was a 40:60 ratio of residences on suburban coastal area residences on septic vs. sewer, and nearly all rural residences were on a septic system (ibid). This study attempted to examine 27 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound development patterns that emerged that septic tanks, an inferior water treatment method, still predominated in the urban coastal areas, even in urban areas but particularly in rapidly growing suburban areas. In her analysis, Spirandelli (2015) argues that, "the high density of septic tanks in suburban areas may be the result of rapid development and increased demand for housing, either in spite of or in response to urban containment policies, such as the Washington Growth Management Act (GMA)," Spirandelli explains, "between the period of 1990-2002, the rate of urban development was significantly higher in areas outside of urban growth boundaries than inside across six of the same counties in [her] study" (Ibid, 1104). She continued that regardless of the impact of GMA, "septic tanks may also be a preferred option for developers inside urban growth areas" comparing trends in Balitmore after a Smart Growth initiative to Washington, arguing that the trend may be because the "local county government cannot afford sewer expansion and state subsidies are lacking, and/or there is a failure in adequate infrastructure planning" (ibid). For whatever reason, Spirandelli documents how the frontline communities where people of color are most concentrated are the areas in need of better infrastructure to treat wastewater. Spirandelli asserts that existing policies, "fail to address the wider impacts of development patterns associated with septic tanks within and outside areas served by a centralized sewer system" (ibid). She calls out planning department and public agencies regulations of land use changes as also failing "to address the proliferation of residences with septic systems in suburbia at very high densities" (ibid). Spirandelli demonstrates that data informed policy can have a much stronger impact in balancing human needs with ecosystem function in the Puget Sound. Further examination of an urbanizing Puget Sound follows, but first the next section will examine the impact of Toxic sites upon Washington waterways. 28 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Toxic Sites upon the Health of Washington Waterways Toxics are the most extreme of the pollutants that impact the health of Washington waterways. They are responsible, along with destruction of natural habitat for the decline of Chinook and Coho salmon species, and further up the food chain, the Orca populations that once proliferated in the Puget Sound. Toxics are also responsible for morbidity within the human populations that are potentially exposed via ingestion. The negative impact of toxic sites impacts the entire ecosystem. Unfortunately, it impacts people of color at disproportionate rate as it is estimated that 56% of the population near toxic waste sites are people of color. The Impact of PBC's on Animals in the Puget Sound Aquatic life in the Puget Sound have considerably higher levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in comparison to other waterways. PCBs are mixtures of up to 209 individual chlorinated compounds, they are used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors, and other electrical equipment. The United States stopped manufacturing PCBs in 1977 because of the harmful health effects. Image Source: Seattle Post-Intellegencer 29 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Nuclear contamination on the Columbia River The Columbia Generating Station is only a part of the toxicity that the Hanford Nuclear Reservation represents, in 2007 the site represented two-thirds of the nation's high-level radioactive waste by volume. Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States and is the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup. It is very difficult to contain radioactive waste, many of the companies that are responsible for clean-up spend decades modeling solutions, and many times even those solutions are temporary such as the Waste Treatment and Vitrification project that is proposing to make 56 million gallons of Hanford's radioactive waste into glass. Meanwhile, Hanford is steadily and slowly leaking into the water table and also into the Columbia River. In the 1940s, radioactive isotopes that escaped into the water that cooled reactors during the Manhattan Project were found as far away as the mouth of the Columbia River into the Pacific Ocean. The Impact of Brownfield Sites on the Puget Sound Brownfield sites refer to abandoned or underused properties that may have environmental contamination. Redevelopment efforts often find it too costly to be liable for the cleanup costs. Common brownfield sites in Washington include properties formerly used as gas stations, auto repair shops, dry cleaners, landfills, manufacturing sites, pulp and paper mills and wood-treating facilities. Examples of Brownfields sites that have been recently redeveloped in the Puget Sound include the Thea Foss Waterway in Tacoma and the Bellingham Waterfront. There are about 370 brownfield sites in Pierce County identified by the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department and 22 more sites reported by home facts, Tacoma had the most sites. There were 69 brownfield sites reported by home facts in King County. Inventories of brownfield sites in the Southpark neighborhood identified 117 tax parcels and 8 highway right of way locations in King County. A similar inventory found 98 tax parcels in the Georgetown neighborhood in need of remediation in King County. Seattle and Kent were identified as having considerable brownfield sites in King County. In Snohomish county, here are 16 brownfield sites that were identified by Home Facts, one site that is in redevelopment is adjacent to the Snohomish River, the site includes the Everett Landfill and Simpson site. In Skagit County the Port of Skagit County has recently been activated as a brownfield redevelopment, and six other sites were identified by Home Facts. The agency identified 15 brownfield sites in Whatcom County. 17 brownfield sites were identified in Kitsap County. Clallum County had 18 brownfield sites. The West Olympia Landfill was the only site identified as a brownfield site in Olympia. Anti-displacement coalitions along the I-5 corridor are currently conducting research that looks into the feasibility of utilizing resources allocated to the redevelopment of brownfield sites in to possible mixed- use facilities that include low-income housing, ethnic specific small-businesses and micro-enterprises, and community green spaces, gardens and urban farms. Front & Centered could duplicate these activities in outlying people of color communities affiliated with the coalition that may not have the resources to engage in that kind of research. Acting as an anchor institution in this form may help redistribute the capital that has been accumulated in the non-distributive economy of Seattle to rural and impoverished regions that are just as impacted by pollution and contamination by these toxic sites. 30 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Superfund Sites on the Puget Sound A Superfund site refers to land that has been contaminated by hazardous waste and identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a candidate for cleanup because it poses a risk to human health and/or the environment. The National Priorities List (NPL) is a list of the most hazardous waste sites that have been identified and require immediate response. Sites on the NPL are eligible for long-term remedial action (cleanup) financed under the federal Superfund program. Congress created the Superfund in 1980 to pay for the cleanup of the country's most hazardous waste sites. There are approximately 507 superfund sites within the counties that surround and are in the Puget Sound. Of those, 398 (78.5%) have been archived. As of 2015, there were 84 active sites around the Puget Sound that made the National Priorities List (NPL), and 25 active sites that were not on the list. County Whatcom Skagit Snohomish King Pierce Kitsap Island San Juan Active: NPL 1 0 0 16 55 10 2 0 Active: Non-NPL 8 5 10 0 0 0 2 0 Archived 40 12 38 217 61 21 7 2 TOTAL 49 17 48 233 116 31 11 2 Superfund sites represent the toxic sites that were deemed essential or a priority to be cleaned up by the federal government, there are many more toxic brownfield sites that have not been allocated federal funding as demonstrated in the section above, that does not mean, however that funding is not available. Of the more famous superfund sites that contaminated much of the lower Puget Sound was the Asarco Smelter that was located on Rustin Way, North of Tacoma. The plume spread into neighboring counties and islands in the Puget Sound. Front & Centered listening sessions identified toxic sites that may or may not be included in the toxic sites enumerated above, particularly in Grays Harbor. Further research into the feasibility of the utilization of Brownfield Site Redevelopment funds by grassroots organizations and technical assistance in managing such initiatives would be a worthwhile endeavor for Front & Centered that would support campaigns to clean up toxic sites around the Puget Sound in their respective communities. 31 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Impact of Climate Change on the Puget Sound When it comes to Climate Change and how it impacts an entire bioregion, it is important to understand climate change as a "threat multiplier," of the pollution and contamination that already exists as presented in the preceding sections (Got Green & Puget Sound Sage 2016, 19). In fact, because humans are an integral part of the entire world’s ecosystem it makes sense for us to examine industrial human activity, particularly on the industrial and societal scale, has a tremendous primary impact on the health of the ecosystem as a whole, in other words as the original threat. That being said, human activity in our bioregion has impacted the development of the ecosystem for millennia, the vast network of agroforestry, wild cultivation, hunting systems and aquaculture pre-existed contact and historical record shows that this human activity had made the bio-region of the Puget Sound lush and abundant. We begin to see negative impacts in the historical record via the encroachment of resource extractive colonial human activities that began in our region in the 17th century with fur trappers, traders and prospectors began to pave the way for the region’s first human catastrophe that cumulated in this region with the Point Elliot Treaty in 1853. The historical record shows that through settler colonialism, resource extraction decimated old growth forests in the region, overfished multiple marine species, and introduced monoculture practices that decimated millennial wild harvest and agroforestry cultivations maintained by the first nation peoples. In the short 164 years since the Point Elliot Treaty, the impact of what was referred to as global primitive accumulation by empires and the following settler colonialism the negative consequences of human activity have culminated in a change in the ecosystem in a form that is often referred to as Climate Change. Climate Change refers to the consequences to this unbridled colonial appropriation and accumulation in the last 164 years that have led to fundamental changes in the air, water, earth and life that exist in our bioregion. In a recent 32 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound report, Scientists (2016) found that they are almost completely certain that these climate changes have come about specifically because of human activity (aka capitalism, colonialism and imperialism). For the purposes of our project, I have been consulted to model the cascading effect of all of these phenomena wreak on the Puget Sound. Previous sections have explained in part the level of pollution and contamination that human activity has contributed to the deteriorating health of the Puget Sound. Minimal funding allocated by the federal government to mitigate the most toxic of those through superfund sites, and funding available to redevelop brownfield sites only begin to scratch the surface of the underlying problem. This prospectus argues that a fundamental cultural change in regard to human activity is a necessary prerequisite to advance any environmental recovery of the Puget Sound. It takes an ecosystem level change to impact ecosystem level damage. This theory of change will be shared more robustly in the final section of this prospectus. Every community across Washington state that participated in the listening sessions conducted by Front & Centered identified the ways in which climate change impacted their community in particular. A key finding is that though there are multiple factors that impact these communities, the participants reported that climate change has led to their deteriorating physical and mental health as well as increased mortality. Communities attempting to deal with the ecosystem level problem of climate change in an isolated manner have driven them to encourage collaboration and collective action. The Na'ah Illahee listening sessions, for example stressed the need to connect individual Puget Sound beach clean-up efforts through the cultural significant practice of Tribal Canoe Journeys. Frontline communities in Kent and Bellingham also identified the need to collaborate via education to attain a cultural shift around zero-waste where their communities could lead as examples of how to properly recycle and reduce the amount of waste that they produce. Based on the common themes coming from each community, the following section will provide a narrative of what is negatively impacting the mental health and wellbeing of the communities of focus in order to have an idea of what these communities are up against. Climate change affects physical, mental, and community health. Climate change exacerbates the inequalities faced by communities of color and low-income communities due to systematic disinvestment and discrimination. As will be discussed in more detail below, communities of color face greater exposure to environmental hazards and often lack the resources to adapt to climate change. However, Got Green’s 2016 publication in community experiences of climate change in South Seattle/King County, “Our People, Our Planet, Our Power”, found that only 24% of survey respondents, “thought low-income people or people of color would be most impacted” by climate change. This further underscores the importance of a climate justice approach that meets communities of color where they are at, to understand how issues they identify as the biggest threats to their communities are impacted by climate change while also distributing the message that communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately harmed by climate change. The Compounding Impact of Ocean Acidification on the Puget Sound Food Web Ocean Acidification refers to a change in ocean carbonate chemistry because of the concentration of hydrogen ions in ocean seawater. According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program in Washington, DC, the "increase of atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities, including changes in land use, have a direct effect on ocean carbonate chemistry" (Jewett, L. and A. Ramanou 2017, 371). The U.S. Global Change Research Program explains that, " CO2 is an acid gas that combines with water to form carbonic acid, which then dissociates into hydrogen and bicarbonate ions. Increasing concentrations of seawater hydrogen ions result in a decrease of carbonate ions in seawater affects saturation states for calcium carbonate compounds, which many marine species use to build their shells and skeletons" (Ibid, 371-72). Along the Puget Sound, every single listening session conducted by Front & Centered referred to negative impact of the burning of fossil fuels and other human industrial activities on the wildlife of the Puget Sound. Further, these frontline 33 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound communities and scientists have identified that for the urbanized estuary of the Puget Sound there are compounding impacts that affect acidification in the Puget Sound, both call for further research and documentation. According to R.A. Feely et al. (2010) the following are the species of marine calcifiers that will be negatively impacted in the Puget Sound by acidification: - Cold water corals - Coccolithophorids - Foraminifera - Sea urchins - Pteropods - Mussels - Clams - Oysters Two studies, (Ishimatsu et al., 2004; Gazeau et al., 2007) have named species of juvenile fish and shellfish as being highly sensitive to ocean acidification. The 2015 State of the Sound report identified that the total number of wild spawning Chinook salmon declined as compared to 2006-2010. The population count for Orca whales was 82 in 2015. These indicator species help us to understand the impact of ocean acidification on the overall food web. It is important to note that for indigenous people, climate change and ocean acidification represent a negative impact to traditional food and foodways of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) Food Shed. The Native American centered listening sessions offered a lot of information regarding the changes that they were observing in relation to shellfish harvesting which has been a major part of local food ways since before colonization. Traditional Ecological Knowledge's of Salish Sea first nations, for example, store a fundamental understanding of how safely consume Geoduk (Panopea generosa - a salt water clam) harvested during a red tide. Considering that the ocean acidification that accompanies climate change will create similar adverse conditions, it will be necessary to follow the lead of Salish Sea First Nations. The Compounding Impact of Climate Change upon the Puget Sound Extreme temperatures have raised the average surface air temperature across the globe by about 1.8°F (1.0°C) over the last 115 years (Ibid, 1). Scientists explain that, "the last few years have also seen record-breaking, climate-related weather extremes, and the last three years have been the warmest years on record for the globe" (ibid). Among those things that are negatively impacted by higher temperatures include, "agricultural productivity, energy use, human health, water resources, infrastructure, natural ecosystems, and many other essential aspects of society and the natural environment" (Ibid, 4). Front & Centered listening sessions shared many examples that tie into these issues including using energy more often to heat and cool their homes, coupled with higher energy prices this has tremendously increased the amount that they have to pay for energy. Several sites shared about the limits of water resources and farmworkers shared having a comrade die from complications exacerbated by heat exposure and exposure to wildfire smoke in Sumas, Washington. Furthermore, because of increased density in areas not structurally designed to handle so many people, Seattle sewer systems are regularly spilling raw untreated sewage into Lake Washington and the Puget Sound, this year alone, over 30 million gallons of raw sewage has poured into the Puget Sound since February. One of the themes that emerged from the listening sessions as illustrated by the stories above is the cascading effect of Climate Change impacts on the health of the ecosystems in which people of color live. Climate Change induced impact on Snow Pack The U.S. Global Change Research Program expects that "substantial reductions in western U.S. winter and spring snowpack as the climate warms" (Wehner, M.F. et al. 2017; 231). According to their research, "earlier spring melt and reduced snow water equivalent have been formally attributed to human-induced warming and will very likely be exacerbated as the climate continues to warm" (ibid). Front and Centered listening sessions across Washington connected the reductions in snow pack to availability of healthy and clean drinking water. Scientists anticipate that without proper water resource management, we can expect "chronic, long-duration hydrological drought [deficit in water runoff]" by the end of the century (ibid). 34 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Climate Change has increase the likelihood of Droughts The western United States have already experienced chronic, long-duration agricultural drought (soil moisture deficit) that has been exacerbated by industrial farming practices. In the western U.S. hydrological droughts (deficit in water runoff) has been impacted by the emergence of "atmospheric rivers" (Ibid; 237). The scientists caution that, "the fraction of precipitation falling as snow will decrease, potentially disrupting western U.S. water management practices" (Ibid). They state, Climate Change has increased the likelihood of Flooding The U.S. Global Change Research Program found that an increase in extreme precipitation or atmospheric rivers, "is projected to continue to do so across the United States in a warming atmosphere" (ibid). Atmospheric rivers, scientists found are "narrow streams of moisture that account for 30%-40% of the typical snowpack and annual precipitation in the region and are associated with severe flooding events" (Wuebbles et al 2017, 13). Scientists explain that the frequency of these atmospheric rivers along the West Coast" will increase as a result of increasing evaporation and resulting higher atmospheric water vapor that occurs with increasing temperature" (ibid). Rising sea levels will also impact the Puget Sound, but to a lesser extent than the rest of the world. The, "Global mean sea level (GMSL) has risen by about 7-8 inches (about 16-21 cm) since 1900, with about 3 of those inches (about 7 cm) occurring since 1993" (Ibid, 16). Scientists are highly confident that human-caused climate change is responsible for making substantial contributions to GMSL since the turn of the 20th century and that the rise in sea level since then has been the highest in the last 3,000 years (Ibid). Flooding in low altitude communities within the urban settings of Seattle (i.e. Georgetown) where people of color live were reported to Got Green. Furthermore, rural communities experienced a catastrophic mudslide in March 2014 on the north fork of the Stillaguamish River, a tributary to the Puget Sound. Climate Change has increased frequency of Wildfires and Exposure to Wildfire Smoke has become a Health Crisis The U.S. Global Change Research Program reports that "recent decades have seen a profound increase in forest fire activity over the western United States and Alaska" (Ibid, 242). Wildfire smoke contributes to air pollution. Increased precipitation such as the atmospheric rivers convert it into acid rain, and the fine particulate matter makes its way into our waterways in the runoff as described by several participants in our listening sessions. According to Carolyn Black, "Fine particles generally settle out of the atmosphere more slowly than course particles, and therefore disperse further from the source. Fine and ultrafine particulate is also of particular concern in human health because of its ability to penetrate more deeply into the lung (Black et al. 2017, 187). Community to Community saw this as a contributing factor to the death of an H-2A farmworker in Sumas this August. Entre Hermanos also documented being negatively impacted by the smoke from the fires as far south as Seattle. Since the crisis that we experienced here in Washington at the end of the Summer, two major wildfires have ravaged urban centers in California North of San Francisco and North of Los Angeles, California. Their proximity to San Francisco and Los Angeles made the stories reach national headlines as people are still evacuated from the areas where they live as the wildfires have proven difficult to contain, and the inhabitants living and working downwind of the fires, along with the inmates who have been assigned to fight the fires, have been exposed to elevated amounts of fine particulate matter and toxic air. Farmworker advocacy organizations in California (CAUSE, MICOP) that are networked with farmworker advocacy organizations in Washington state (C2C, FUJ) were able to distribute particulate respirator masks to farmworkers required to continue working in global export monoculture cultivations as the wildfires raged on in the background because information regarding the threat of fine particulate matter was shared within the networks surrounding the death of Honesto Silva Ibarra in Washington at the beginning of August. 35 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The capacity to respond immediately as climate change crises develop is a strength that Front & Centered affiliated organizations have been able to model for the rest of the world. It is important for Front & Centered to continue to support the capacity of these grassroots organizations and prioritize them over large non-profit organizations because they are better experienced at community level solutions. This is not to say that there isn't a role for large non-profit organizations, as gatekeeping in the context of opening the gates that they keep and giving access to legislators to these small grassroots organizations along with funneling fiscal support, technical assistance, and subject matter expertise to grassroots leadership creates the conditions under which we all win. Creating the space for grassroots community driven leadership to exercise the community power it has already generated that all of the capital campaigns and institutional change that large institutions and coalitions wish to see in our state can be accomplished. 36 Population Growth and Recovery in the Puget Sound Parts of this section were written by Sarah Bigelow Effects of Urban Expansion on the Puget Sound The population in the Puget Sound region is expected to grow by 1 million people within the next 15 years (Rodgers 2016, 3). Much of the urban sprawl driven by tech industry nondistributive wealth and transit oriented development in the Puget Sound requires encroachment upon wetlands and stream environment zones. This growth multiplies the pollutant loads contained in urban runoff. Following the path of development in the San Francisco Bay area, land use change in the Puget Sound is primarily the "conversion of land currently in agricultural or rural use into one of three urban uses: residential, commercial/light industrial, or heavy industrial (McCreary et al. 1992; 233-35). Human Overpopulation: Impact of Migration The Puget Sound region has seen an increase in both total population and the rate of population growth - 2.1% from April 2016 to April 2017 (Puget Sound Regional Council, 2017). The vast majority (72% statewide from April 2016 to April 2017) of this population growth has occurred due to net migration (Washington Office of Financial Management, 2017). Due to rising housing costs in King County, in 2016 Pierce and Snohomish Counties saw the nation’s largest increase in the rate of net domestic migration (Seattle Times, 2017). U.S. Census (2010) data shows that Seattle and Tacoma are major urban enclaves for Asian American Pacific Islander, Latino, Black, and Native American communities (See figure below). Further, that South King County and parts of Pierce County are suburban enclaves for these very communities in Washington. The CBPR study conducted by Got Green and Puget Sound Sage provided qualitative data that demonstrated that "people of color and low-income people bear the brunt" of inflated housing prices in Seattle that drive the migration south of the city (Got Green & Puget Sound Sage 2016, 23). They shared that the Seattle Comprehensive Plan produced a mapping study that "found that areas with the highest risk [of displacement] are in the Rainier Valley, and displacement risk is particularly high along the light rail corridors" (ibid). They shared that the population of the Rainier Valley is 77% People of Color. The data demonstrates that the front-line communities that are experiencing displacement and the communities to which they are urbanizing are one and the same as the communities highlighted in the figure on the next page. 37 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Across the United States, these disparities are rampant, for example, African Americans are more than twice as likely as whites to live in a home with substandard plumbing. Further, more than 1 percent of black people continue to live in houses without potable water and modern sanitation, compared to less than 0.5 percent of whites. The recent water contamination case in Flint, Michigan is but the most recent of many examples. 38 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Front & Centered listening sessions documented some of the experiences of people of color communities in Kent and south King county and Bellingham, and that indigenous communities experienced in Washington State due to the changes that have occurred in these regions since 2010. All shared commonalities about substandard housing (mold, bed bugs), deteriorating health, overcrowding, and being exposed to second-hand smoke through the ventilation systems of the apartments that they could now afford. Got Green and Puget Sound Sage were able to survey the items that their communities saw as most immediate in their communities, the Front and Centered Listening Sessions confirmed these emerging themes collected in 2016 as community needs in 2017 but across a wider geography of the Entire I-5 corridor (Table 1 from Got Green & Puget Sound Sage 2016, 20). Impact of Human Overpopulation on Pollution in the Puget Sound Human overpopulation has come to be recognized as a global environmental problem. Overpopulation can impact climate change, urban sprawl, energy demand, marine ecosystems, and food security (Uniyal et al. 2017). The environmental racism component to this issue is the tendency by mainstream environmental organizations to blame communities of color for the environmental ills that industrial human activity on the scale of global capitalism has wrought on the planet. According to Got Green & Puget Sound Sage, "Environmental racism and structural inequality means that our communities are already more likely to live in areas with high exposure to air pollution, toxic waste sites, the urban heat island effect, and other environmental hazards" (Got Green & Puget Sound Sage 2016, 7). The reality in Washington, as the urban population and enclave map based on 2010 US Census data and the preceding section on wastewater demonstrates, are that the communities to where the displaced flee are structurally underfunded and lack the infrastructure to deal with an urbanizing population and are already toxic zones to begin with. 39 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Urban Sprawl and Infrastructure New projects are required to meet the needs of a booming population - Representative Jayapal identified 22 infrastructure projects in Congressional District 7 in 2017 (Jayapal, 2017). Infrastructure development, even those projects with the best intentions of being sustainable, increases demand for water, can pollute both ground and surface water, and change the flood risk of those downstream or adjacent to the development (INTOSAI, 2013). Front and Centered communities of color identified concerns over access to clean water as a key issue. Transit Oriented Development (TOD): GHG Impacts TOD is part of Seattle’s efforts to reduce GHG emissions from passenger vehicles to 82% of 2008 levels by 2030 (Got Green and Puget Sound Sage 2016). However, the displacement risk is also highest for populations living along the light rail corridors, which in Rainier Valley is comprised of 77% people of color, compared to 26% for Seattle as a whole (Got Green & Puget Sound Sage 2016). Further, TOD has created a speculative market on areas that are slated for development, such as the Hilltop community in Pierce County. As more and more professionals making above $100,000 rent in Seattle and push those that cannot keep up with the rising housing costs to the periphery of the city, many people also move southward (ibid). According to the U.S. Census, the largest source of migration southward into Pierce County for example, originated in King County (14,300). The figure below demonstrates that King County and Pierce County are experiencing the highest migration increases in Washington. If low-income communities of color are displaced by TOD and continue to use personal vehicles for transportation, GHG emissions could worsen due to use of older, less efficient vehicles (Got Green & Puget Sound Sage 2016). 40 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Anti-Displacement: An emerging strategy that can be connected to ecological recovery Got Green and Puget Sound Sage argue that they see mobilizing their community around environmental justice, climate change and displacement "as an opportunity to build community power behind equitable solutions that strengthen the resilience of communities of color and low-income families" (Got Green & Puget Sound Sage 2016, 4). To the South, the Making Connections coalition led by Hilltop Urban Gardens is also advancing a similar project to build community power around environmental justice and displacement and in the north, Community to Community Development has been able to successfully build community power around environmental justice and climate change. For Front & Centered your strongest frontline communities in the Puget Sound revolve around the work of the powerful grassroots organizations such as Community to Community Development, Hilltop Urban Gardens, and Got Green. Figuring out how to honor the leadership coming from these frontline communities, and safeguarding their continued participation and leadership of the Front & Centered Coalition will be necessary for the success of any campaigns launched for the recovery of the health of the Puget Sound. Many of these grassroots organizations have already established deep connections with local tribal and non-tribal indigenous organizations identified in the sections above that are a prerequisite for any sustainable solution advanced toward the goal of recovery. Community to Community works with Red Line Salish Sea, the Lummi Nation and Muckleshoot Tribe, Got Green works with the Duwamish Tribe, and HUG and the MCI coalition work with the Cowlitz Tribe, Puyallup Tribe and are beginning to form a relationship with Red Line Tacoma through Northwest Detention Center Resistance. The field is set to advance the proposal that I will be presenting in the next section, to treat the Salish Sea as what it has always been since time immemorial, a sacred site. 41 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Recovery of Salish Sea as a Sacred Site and Marine Sanctuary Public and private lands in the United States are carved out of the ancestral lands of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Since colonization, their lands have been reduced to a fraction of what they once were, placing the fate of their sacred sites in the hands of non-Indian peoples. The fact that most Indian sacred sites are no longer under the control of Indian tribes makes them vulnerable to damage and destruction. Past federal policies prohibiting traditional lifeways and ceremonies meant that Indian peoples had to carry out their ceremonies in secret. And, the removal of many Indian tribes from their homelands separated them from the places they held, and still hold sacred. All of these factors, in addition to present-day development, threaten the existence of Indian sacred sites and, in turn, Indian tribes and their cultures. However, despite all the threats, American Indians' and Alaska Natives' historical and spiritual connection to these culturally important and relevant places has not been extinguished. (Advisory Council on Historic Preservation 2015, 1) 42 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound A sacred site is a place within the landscape that has special meaning or significance for indigenous first nations peoples. Most any geographic natural features can be sacred sites. In coastal and sea areas like the Puget Sound, sacred sites include features from the waterways to the mountains. Many of the original treaty agreements between the United States and Indigenous nations originally included landmarks such as Kulshan (Mt. Baker), Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) and the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) as boundary markers for indigenous territories. In the United States of America, sacred sites are defined in Executive Order 13007: Indian Sacred Sites "as any specific, discrete, narrowly delineated location on Federal Land that is identified by an Indian Tribe, or Indian individual determined to be an appropriately authoritative representative of an Indian religion, as sacred by virtue of its established religious significance to, or ceremonial use by, an Indian religion, provided that the Tribe or appropriately authoritative representative of an Indian religion has informed the agency of the existence of such a site" (E.O. 13007, 1996). This law "requires Federal agencies responsible for the management of Federal lands, to the extent practicable, permitted by law, and not clearly inconsistent with essential agency functions, to accommodate access to and ceremonial use of Indian sacred sites by Indian religious practitioners and to avoid adversely affecting the physical integrity of such sacred sites" (emphasis by author, USDA 2012, 7). Though this is the federally recognized definition of a sacred site, many Indian tribes have suggested that sacred sites should be viewed as "cultural landscapes" that include entire ecosystems. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation continues, "Native peoples have a special relationship with the land and sacred sites may be revered through or described, through a tribe's language, in songs, stories, ceremonies, and place names" (Ibid, 2). As such, indigenous nations across the United States assert that these geographic spaces are "essential for tribal communities to pass on traditions, language, and beliefs to the next generation" (Ibid). The Salish Sea that is referred to in the U.S.A. in part as the Puget Sound, has become one of those "cultural landscapes" through the revitalization of the Tribal Canoe Journeys that began in 1989 (Hirch and Korn N.D.). Though ocean-going canoe protocol and ceremony are ancestral traditions that predate colonization, United States federal policy outlawed the practice of indigenous ceremony and protocol as a way to assert colonial dominance upon first nations communities. The families and clans that lived along the Salish Sea were the last Indigenous peoples to be subdued by the United States in the culmination of the Manifest Destiny doctrine through the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855. From 1855 until 1978 (123 years) the federal government did not allow Native Americans in the United States to practice their own religions. As the epigraph above mentions, these traditional practices had to be kept in secret for that long century. It wasn't until the landmark supreme court case Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) decision that the revitalization of indigenous culture took hold across the United States. The 1988 decision helped indigenous people link the dissipation of tribal identity with land desecration within the law. It was after this, that Coast Salish communities organized themselves to return to traditional ocean-going canoe travels through an event called "Paddle to Seattle," where nine canoe families from Salish Sea communities in the North of Washington and Canada made a journey to the Port of Seattle (Streitberger 1989, 9). This cultural practice of ocean-going canoes connecting communities has been revitalized within the Salish Sea, a geography that spans both Washington and British Columbia and has continued to engage several tribal communities recuperate and preserve ancestral knowledge about ocean-going canoes, reconnecting a people to its ecosystem and tribal identity through language and values for the last 28 years. The cultural renaissance has been so successful for those that participate that it has created several different best practices around mental health, healing historical trauma, and the preservation of traditional foodways and medicines (Thomas et al 2016; Donovan et al 2015; Lonczak et al 2013; and Hirch and Korn N.D.). One of the most documented examples is the Healing of the Canoe collaboration between the Suquamish Tribe, Port Gamble S'Klallum Tribe and the University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute. They were able to conduct "14 43 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound trainings with a total of 238 trainees from 25 different tribes and 10 Native organizations" on how to implement the Healing of the Canoe curriculum by the end of their project (Thomas et al, 10). The impact of this work has led participants to continue to create opportunities to preserving traditional ecological knowledge of first foods and medicines, most recently the Commission for Environmental Cooperation awarded funding for a coalition led by Consultants for Indian Progress in Tacoma to grow first foods and medicines as well as work with a Cowlitz Tribe herbalist to teach about indigenous medicine to 30 youth, engage traditional storytellers to share first food stories, and support youth to create art that reflects their experience for a wider community. This project also centers the Hilltop Urban Garden's Urban Farm Network, that uses agroecology farming methods that are healthier for the bioregion than industrial farming methods. Further, the project is focused on preserving multiple traditional ecological knowledges and foodways from diasporic populations alongside first nations Coast Salish traditions. These developments speak to the multiplicity of implications that preserving ecosystems as "cultural landscapes/sacred sites," may have upon the larger population along the Puget Sound. 44 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Sanctuaries The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) maintains 13 National Marine Sanctuaries in the United States. The agency primarily focuses on eco-tourism, conservation and management of marine ecosystems. Using tools such as regulations, zonal plans, outreach and education, and research and monitoring. In 1966 as a working group called the Marine Sciences Council was established by congress, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was established in 1970 and placed within the Department of Commerce (hence eco-tourism). The Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act was passed in 1972 and it created the National Marine Sanctuary Program. The National Marine Sanctuaries act was reauthorized in 1980, 1981, 1984, 1988, 1993, 1996, 2000. The 1984 reauthorization included the addition of "historical" and "cultural" qualities, enlarging the sanctuaries primary mission to preserve marine resources beyond the original ecological, recreational, educational, research and aesthetic value placed on the reserves. 45 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, a part of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Adminstration's (NOAA) National Marine Sanctuaries program is an existing marine sanctuary in Washington state that was designated in 1994. It was the twelfth marine sanctuary in the United States. As mentioned above, the Quinalt and Makah Tribes are impacted by this marine sanctuary in a particular way. Considering that their traditional foodways included the harvesting of whales, the designation of their traditional fishing grounds as a National Marine Sanctuary in 1994 has created a paradox to their cultural landscape, as the Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) decision made it clear that desecration of indigenous sites negatively impacted tribal identity, it is logical to think that preventing indigenous people from practicing their ancestral foodways as negatively impacting their tribal identity. Two years after the National Marine Sanctuary was designated and after a legal struggle, the Makah Tribe was able to harvest whales for the first time in over 70 years beginning in October 1998 and lasting for five years. 46 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound The amount of overt racism and white supremacy experienced by the Makah Tribe from mainstream environmentalists and animal rights activists was so impactful that it is still an obstacle in building coalitions between "Big Greens" and indigenous tribes in the Pacific Northwest. The issue is still relevant to this day as the Makah tribe continues to push to resume whaling in the region amidst opposition, of note is that the Tribe continues to appeal to the rule of law to respect the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. In the 2015 public hearing was held to inform the draft Environmental Impact Statement submitted by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration on the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Fifteen of the 19 people that presented supported the Makah Tribe's request. The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary's final management plan completed in 2011 describes the agency's Treaty Trust responsibilities as a part of government-to-government relations, acknowledging that "through Treaties with the United States, the Coastal Treaty Tribes reserved hunting, fishing, and gathering rights to access and utilize the plants, mammals, fish and other resources of this region as being critical to the protection of their treaty rights and the continuity of their distinct societies" (NOAA 2011, 7). In particular the management plan referred to the United States v. Washington (1974) case known more commonly as the Boldt Decision arguing that the treaty right to fish is constrained only by the requirement to ensure fishery resources are preserved and maintained (ibid). NOAA used the Boldt decision to reduce the power of Tribal entities on the matter of fishing to the status of "comanagers" rather than stewards, and lacking any further legislation governing the role of federal entities such NOAA that the most they could do was to work together with the tribes to seek a compromise. These resulted with the following items that they see as the role of NOAA in regards to the National Marine Sanctuaries: • • • • Protect and conserve treaty resources; Protect the exercise of treaty rights by the Coastal Treaty Tribes; Support the development of and deference to tribal treaty resource management plans meeting the objectives of the NMSA; and Consult with the Coastal Treaty Tribes on a government-to-government basis when proposing to take an action that may affect treaty resources or tribal treaty rights or resources of cultural or historical significance (15 CFR 922.153(g)(h)). (Ibid, 11). The creation of a National Marine Sanctuary on the Olympic Coast that governs the traditional fishing grounds of tribes like the Makah and Quinalt and creates a government-to-government relationship is one that requires coalitions like Front & Centered should always defer to Tribal leadership. Many of the POC communities that are also impacted are supposedly represented by the interests of the United States, unfortunately the entities from the United States that have the loudest voice are not people, but corporate interests. One thing that a coalition like Front & Centered can do is to make People of Color community voices in support of tribal struggles louder. A new level of coordination would be a necessary prerequisite in order to begin such a campaign. A paradigm shift of a paradigm shift: From Bioregional Marine Sanctuary towards a Bioregional Sacred Site The move for a Salish Sea "marine sanctuary" centers around traditional conservation approaches that hold that natural ecosystems need protection from human activity. Currently, the drive for a Salish Sea "marine sanctuary" that includes the Straight of Georgia, Juan de Fuca Straight and Puget Sound is being hailed as the first bioregional marine sanctuary with core objectives of restoring natural animal populations throughout the bioregion to more than 50% of historic levels as soon as possible. The proponents of this initiative claim to have democratic support via voter initiatives and tribal government approval, however the focus of pushing for a Bioregional Marine Sanctuary is one and the same with the mission of the National Marine Sanctuary tradition and respect to Puget Sound as an Indigenous Sacred Site for the preservation of Culture isn't even on the radar of many of its proponents. 47 Prospectus: Pollution and Recovery along the Puget Sound Though the initiative has not made much headway since the beginning of their campaign, it would be a campaign that could serve to mobilize Salish Sea communities to action. 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