Community Based Action on Heavy Duty Trucks in the Duwamish Valley
Guided by community and the Clean Air Program Action Plan, DRCC has recently partnered with the International Council of Clean Transportation (ICCT) and City of Seattle to discover the feasibility of implementing a zero emissions coordinator in the Duwamish Valley. DRCC joins the project as a community-based partner among others on this two-year project.
Why is Reducing Diesel Emissions a Top Priority?
Photo taken biking on the Duwamish Valley trail, source: adrienne@duwamishcleanup.org
The Duwamish Valley is a “near-port” and Environmental Justice community along the Duwamish River in Seattle. Heavy-duty truck traffic is a serious health threat and community concern as it disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrant, and refugee families.
Three freeways border the Duwamish Valley, Interstate 5, Highway 99 and the West Seattle Bridge.
Goods movement is a serious threat to the health of all communities in Washington, especially near-port communities. Pollution from the movement of goods, especially from the trucking sector, is a serious threat to the health and welfare of people living in the Duwamish Valley and a significant community concern.
Huge swaths of the Duwamish Valley are in the top 5% of communities nationwide with the highest proximity to traffic and traffic volume, and highest exposure to diesel PM pollution. Accordingly, remediating pollution from goods movement is of paramount importance to communities living in the Duwamish Valley.
According to EPA’s environmental justice mapping tool EJSCREEN, 71% of the population in the six Census Block Groups encompassing Georgetown and South Park is nonwhite. EJSCREEN also reported that the Georgetown and South Park communities had diesel Particulate Matter (PM) levels higher than:
94% of other communities in the region, (Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Washington),
92% of other communities in the state, and
83% of other communities in the nation.
A combined 5,400 trucks which contract with the Port account for 20% of greenhouse gas and 17% of diesel particulate emissions from port activity. Diesel emissions from moving goods, including trucking and shipping, deteriorate air quality in Georgetown and South Park, which sit at the heart of Seattle’s freight corridor. These burdens are not shared equitably by all residents of the Puget Sound region. South Park and Georgetown are exposed to higher levels of diesel exhaust compared to residents living in Queen Anne and even Beacon Hill.
Project Highlight: Working to Eliminate Emissions From Heavy Duty Trucks: Zero Emission Coordinator project with the City of Seattle and ICCT
We aim to support the significant reduction of diesel emissions from drayage trucks through a series of community-based and community-led activities, inspired and guided by the Community Action Team and project partners.
Drayage trucks are trucks that have a flat bed so that large shipping containers can be placed on them. These trucks make short distant trips in and around the Port area and are foundational to the functioning of the Port.
The goal to significantly reduce diesel emissions is a high community priority as drayage service trucks contribute to air pollution in the Duwamish Valley, which disproportionately impacts Duwamish Valley residents compared to the broader Seattle area.
How Can We Do This?
Discovery: Center community priorities and identify the potential for equitable zero emission vehicles and technology while understanding global impacts
Examples: raise community questions, data, truck driver knowledge, public health, creative financing
Strategy: For implementation, draft a Seattle Zero Emission Port Truck Policy Action Plan that details regulatory responsibilities and reflects a just transition framework, accountability and sustainable support
Advocacy, Funding and Feasibility: Assess the feasibility and inform the development of a Seattle Zero Emission Port Truck Pilot including in-depth driver consultation, community engagement, suppliers, costs and lessons learned around the world
*note on hyper local driver engagement: ICCT, together with the African Chamber of Commerce and City of Seattle, is conducting a truck driver survey to learn more about the challenges truck drivers face and how zero emission trucks could address those challenges. Results are being collected and should be available this Fall.
COVID-19 Impacts
Trucking operations have continued, even while the Duwamish Valley faces the Covid-19 pandemic head on, suffering more severe outcomes associated with COVID-19 compared to North Seattle communities. In fact, many community members are considered “essential front-line workers”, who then mostly do not hold the option of engaging in stay-at-home or remote work to keep jobs.
Likewise, where public health officials have encouraged Washingtonians to recreate outdoors to relieve the social and emotional toll of the pandemic, such outdoor recreation options come with health impacts for Duwamish Valley seniors, children and immunocompromised community members, who are forced to stay inside to avoid unhealthy air.
This means the community is not only harmed by ongoing pollution problems that have existed for years; yet we must fight these health impacts while also bearing a disproportionate health burden due to l the COVID pandemic, caused by a severe viral respiratory illness.
The importance of discussing the ongoing global pandemic in our comment is to make clear that a timeline for air cleanup measured in decades ignores the reality today and should not be acceptable to any of us. The Duwamish Valley deserves real commitments to ensure the elimination of health disparities in near-Port communities.
Highlight: Clean Air Program Action Plan
Improving air quality, reducing rates of asthma and additional health disparities among Duwamish Valley residents is a top priority. Through research, community-led action, and policy all focused on combating air pollution, the Duwamish Valley Clean Air Program participants strive to reduce a wide range of health impacts by acting on specific activities following firm accountability measures to advance climate justice.
Advocacy in Action: Eliminating Diesel Pollution
Delivered public comments to the Department of Ecology on the Advanced Clean Truck Rule with Earthjustice
Testified in support of accelerating dirty emission reduction targets in both the Port of Seattle and Northwest Seaport Alliance Maritime Climate and Air Implementation Plans. Or “Testified to support ramping-up dirty emission reduction timeline”
Advocated for diesel particulate matter and greenhouse gas emission from near port activities such as heavy-duty diesel trucks which create tremendous pollution, noise and disruptions in our communities
Continue to grow partnerships with the City and partners to center community voices in plans to incentivize electrification of heavy-duty vehicles and improve circumstances for drivers in an equitable and just way
Advocate for Clean & Just transportation and health mobility in partnership with Front and Centered
Met with Metro leadership to mitigate the impacts of West Seattle Bridge closure, the need for public transit, and represented the Duwamish Valley on the West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force
Increase community participatory air monitoring in the Duwamish Valley through the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency Air Toxics Study
Launch the Duwamish Valley Air Story Map with support from the University of Washington, a place to learn more about efforts to improve air quality conditions in the Duwamish Valley. Visit here: www.drcc.org/clean-air-program
Testified in support of the Healthy Environmental for All (HEAL) Act
Participated in the King County Climate Action Plan and Climate and Equity Taskforce
In The News
A DUWAMISH VALLEY TRUCK ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAM LOOKS TO REDUCE AIR POLLUTION
by Tushar Khurana