Addressing the environmental injustice and health injustice impact of aircraft air and noise pollution on Beacon Hill.
Our goal is to address the environmental injustice and health injustice impact of aircraft air and noise pollution on Beacon Hill, which is not eligible for mitigation. Our priority shifted to addressing climate injustice when in 2019 the Port of Seattle announced their intent to expand the Seattle Tacoma Airport’s capacity to accommodate a 40% increase in flight take off and landings through the “Sustainable Airport Master Plan” (SAMP). This begged the question of sustainable for whom – for airports only or for the 32,000 residents in Beacon Hill and the over quarter million people who live near the airport that includes 50% BIPOC and 28.8% immigrants and refugees?
A principal part of our work is to provide effective cross cultural and linguistically appropriate community organizing, which is required to build the grassroots level support necessary to influence policy makers to improve health outcomes for Beacon Hill residents. We focus on educating and mobilizing community residents and youth. This includes community education workshops to raise the collective level of knowledge of the Environmental Justice movement and the air and noise work being carried out on Beacon Hill. This education and organizing element is the basis for grassroots community involvement in the Environmental Justice work, and lays the foundation for the success of this work.