Earlier this year, Puget Soundkeeper was proud to support Front and Centered as the coalition brought its Cumulative Risk Burden (CURB) Pollution Act to the 2024 legislative session. This was CURB’s first year in front of the legislature, and it did not pass. Representative Sharlett Mena sponsored the bill.
Puget Soundkeeper spoke with Nico Wedekind, Policy Counsel at Front and Centered, about the CURB Act and what’s next for this ambitious, necessary environmental justice bill. Read the full story below, written by Puget Soundkeeper’s Communications Manager Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone.
Photo: Aerial view of industrial activity in Puget Sound. Photo courtesy Puget Soundkeeper.
Puget Soundkeeper was proud to support Front and Centered as the coalition brought its Cumulative Risk Burden (CURB) Pollution Act to the 2024 legislative session. This was CURB’s first year in front of the legislature, and it did not pass. Representative Sharlett Mena sponsored the bill.
Front and Centered is a communities of color-led coalition, organizing across Washington State. It seeks a Just Transition: centering those disproportionately impacted in governance, restoring community connections to place, creating livelihoods within a healthy environment, and transitioning to renewable resources and energy.
The CURB Act advances a Just Transition because it addresses the cumulative burden of pollution in certain neighborhoods—neighborhoods where government policies allowed, or even encouraged, polluting industries to concentrate. Contemporary pollution permits are not required to consider the historic burden of pollution and the disproportionate, ongoing health risks in certain communities.
Puget Soundkeeper spoke with Nico Wedekind, Policy Counsel at Front and Centered, about the CURB Act and what’s next for this ambitious, necessary environmental justice bill.
PSK: This was the CURB Act’s first year. Can you give a brief overview of how the bill works, for those who are less familiar?
NW: The Cumulative Risk Burden Act is trying to recognize that historically, certain communities have borne the most extreme levels of pollution in the state. It attempts to remedy that by requiring a risk analysis at the project development level. CURB mandates the state deny projects if they can’t be sited in a community without increasing the base level of pollution. For existing projects, it tries to work with the proponent or pursue mitigation.
PSK: How does this differ from existing environmental justice (EJ) legislation?
NW: It builds on the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, and other climate-based legislation, that recognizes pollution as a key indicator of social determinants of health. It goes farther, with the authority to deny a project. Other EJ laws tend to be voluntary or aspirational in terms of really pushing legislative bodies or agencies into action, but CURB clearly lays out how agencies can perform EJ work.
PSK: Why was 2024 the year to run the CURB Act?
NW: We recognize that bills like this don’t really pass in their first session. We also recognize that current EJ laws are getting some momentum. Whether or not that continues to build, we wanted to seize the moment. We need this kind of legislation. Community health can’t wait. Other states have started to pass similar laws, and we can help keep Washington at the forefront of environmental justice.
PSK: What kind of roadblocks did you experience during the session? Were any of them unexpected?
NW: There were lots of ideas on the structure of the bill, which caused some delay in how it progressed. We were thankful for that level of engagement and in-depth participation, because complex bills tend to turn people off. The Senate did not fully consider the bill, besides in committee, and business and construction associations stated some hesitation around the bill. But I think we were adaptive to a lot of concerns.
PSK: What’s next for the CURB Act?
NW: The bill has broad support, and we think it can pass next year. I do want to mention that when the House passed the bill in the Environment & Energy committee, it did so with bipartisan support. And those who voted against it were still engaging with the bill and giving detailed feedback. This was exciting to see, and we hope to build on the fact that both parties recognize now is the time for environmental justice legislation.
We were really inspired by our coalition members who came out to testify for the bill, and by community members who talked about how they wish something like CURB was already in place to help fight polluting projects.
PSK: Do you see CURB starting to influence Washington’s environmental justice policies?
NW: We hope that it’s part of a continuing trend of environmental justice legislation. Its progress showed that there is bipartisan acknowledgement of the problem, and that pollution is a statewide issue. We hope that this awareness continues to build, and the mandatory authority—the stronger level of direction to government—is the new trend. Front and Centered wants environmental justice to be enforceable.