Identifying Overburdened Communities

This is a storymap created to breakdown the draft process Ecology is proposing to identify overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution. These communities are identified for the Improving Air Quality in Overburdened Communities Initiative, as part of the Climate Commitment Act. All indicator maps used in this process are displayed in the "Draft Indicator Descriptions" section. Maps may be slow to load due to large file sizes.

A note on some of the terms used in this Storymap:

• Indicator - The measure of a condition that we are using to identify which areas are overburdened by air pollution. These include:
  • Community indicators, which represent the population characteristics or overall environmental health disparity of a community; and
  • Air pollution indicators, which represent exposure, health impacts, or vulnerability related to air pollution.
• Percentile - The percentile tells you what percent of the state has a lower or equal value for a given indicator. For example, if an area is in the 95th percentile for asthma prevalence, that means it has an asthma prevalence higher than 95% of all areas measured.
• Threshold - Thresholds for indicators determine which areas of the state should be identified as overburdened because it has exceeded a certain value for the relevant indicators.

PDF documents outlining the draft process to identify communities are also available:

•  Draft Criteria General Overview Document  - description of draft indicators and overall process to identify overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution.
•  Draft Criteria Technical Support Document  - full technical breakdown of draft indicators, including methods, caveats, and data sources.

For questions about this StoryMap, or to request data, see contact information at the bottom of this page.

The Climate Commitment Act requires Ecology to create a Cap & Invest program to lower greenhouse gas emissions across the state. Additionally, the  Climate Commitment Act  requires us to identify “ overburdened communities  highly impacted by air pollution,” and make sure that this program reduces a class of pollutants called  “criteria” air pollutants , as well as  greenhouse gas emissions , in these communities. Criteria air pollutants are six common air pollutants that can harm your health and the environment. Ecology, local clean air agencies, and Tribes monitor these pollutants and take action to control and reduce pollution. These criteria pollutants are as follows:

• Carbon Monoxide (CO)
• Lead (Pb)
• Ozone (O ₃ )
• Nitrogen dioxide (NO ₂ )
• Particulate matter:
  • Fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 )
  • Coarse particulate matter (PM ₁₀ )
• Sulfur dioxide (SO ₂ )

Once we have identified the overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution, we will expand Ecology’s statewide air monitoring network in these identified communities. New emissions standards to improve air quality for overburdened communities will be developed through future processes.

To identify overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution, we evaluated several indicators that can identify where communities face disproportionate impacts from air pollution and meet the defintition of overburdened communities, as defined in the Climate Commitment Act:

“a geographic area where vulnerable populations face combined, multiple environmental harms and health impacts or risks due to exposure to environmental pollutants or contaminants through multiple pathways, which may result in significant disparate adverse health outcomes or effects."

To guide this process, we held two tribal listening sessions, eight public and community group listening sessions, as well as a survey and a comment map over a three-month period from January through March of 2022.

With guidance from the Climate Commitment Act and initial public engagement, we developed a set of draft indicators to identify overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution (Figure 1). To be considered overburdened, an area must meet the following:

1. Community Indicators: Either have a 9 or 10 ranking on the Washington Environmental Health Disparities (EHD) map, be in the 90 ^th  percentile or higher of census block groups for the EJScreen Demographic Index, or be Tribal land; and
2. Air Pollution Indicators:
   1. Have an elevated level of one or multiple criteria air pollutants; and
   2. Meet the threshold for one or more of the eight indicators related to air pollution exposure, health impacts, or vulnerability.

These indicators (shown below) are based on data available statewide. After these statewide indicators are applied, we will apply regional data to refine the boundaries of the overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution (see “Draft Factors to Identify Community Boundaries” below).

This section shows the map and a short description of each the draft indicators we are proposing to identify overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution. For a full technical description of each of the draft indicators, see the technical support document on  our website .

After statewide indicators are applied, Ecology proposes using the following additional factors to identify the boundaries of the overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution.

Existing community boundaries – Geographic boundaries used to distinguish communities. For example, city or neighborhood limits. Locations of sensitive receptors – Locations where occupants are at the greatest risk to the harmful effects of exposure to air pollution, including:

• K-12 schools
• Childcare facilities
• Hospitals and health clinics
• Long-term care facilities (e.g. assisted living facilities, nursing homes, etc.)
• Prisons, jails, and detention centers

Regional data – Many studies or additional data on air pollution, health, or environmental justice are available at the regional scale. We can use these in addition to the statewide indicators to define an overburdened community highly impacted by air pollution more accurately.

Size – Large populated areas may be broken up into several neighboring overburdened communities.

Public input – Input from public comment will inform how we will determine overburdened community boundaries.

Several indicators were not included in the draft process due to data limitations. The following indicators are still under exploration, and may be added in the future if the limitations with the data are resolved:

• Outdoor workers – People who mainly work outdoors (agricultural workers, construction workers, etc.) have higher exposure to outdoor air pollution.
• Homelessness – Unhoused people face high exposure to outdoor air pollution.
• Childhood asthma – Children are at greater health risk from exposure to air pollution. Rate of asthma in adults only is included in the draft indicators due to data limitations.
• Proximity to concentrated animal feeding operations – Currently, the “proximity to agriculture” indicator includes cultivated crops and dairies, but not other types of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) such as beef feedlots and poultry farms due to limited data availability.

We are inviting government-to-government consultation with Tribal nations throughout the entire process. We invited government-to-government consultation in December 2021 and conducted two Tribal meetings in January 2022, the week prior to the public listening sessions. We will continue to consult with Tribal nations and organizations affiliated with Washington Tribes throughout the process to identify overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution.

Getting feedback from partner agencies, stakeholders, and the broader community is important to help make sure that the process to identify overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution is reflective of the concerns from communities across Washington State. Specifically, we would like feedback on:

• Draft indicators to identify overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution
• Draft factors for boundaries
• Data sources

You can provide feedback on any of these topics in multiple ways during our fall public comment period from September 19 – November 10.

• Virtual public comment sessions (interpretation available in Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian)
• Submit comments through:
  •  Online portal 
  • Voicemail: 564-200-4426
  • Mail-in: Erin Torrone Department of Ecology P.O. Box 47600 Olympia, WA  98504-7600

We will consider all the input received from the  Environmental Justice Council , Tribal consultation, and the public before finalizing the indicators for identifying overburdened communities highly impacted by air pollution. We will release a final version of the process, updated technical and supporting documents, and a final list and map of overburdened communities the following winter.

Once overburdened communities are identified, we will begin the process of placing air monitors in the identified communities, as well as additional outreach to provide information about monitoring.