stegz306956315_418777477039418_7512001661746763980_n
stegz306956315_418777477039418_7512001661746763980_n

Tacoma, Washington

South Tacoma Economic Green Zone

Since 2021, South Tacoma Economic Green Zone has been driven by the low-income, underrepresented community’s need to move away from heavy industrial pollution and create a new “green” land-use code – to incentivize eco-businesses not only for improved public health, but to protect the South Tacoma Aquifer. According to the EPA, since 1892 improper waste disposal and site activities have contaminated soil and groundwater within the South Tacoma Aquifer area. One of Tacoma’s lowest-income and most racially diverse communities, South Tacoma continues to be disproportionately impacted by heavy-industrial zoning and plagued by some of the worst air pollution and illness/mortality rates in the country – and a mega-warehouse covering some of the last greenspace has just been approved. Undeterred, STEGZ continues the fight for health impact assessments for new developments, updated groundwater protection codes, and a moratorium on development until codes and further studies are conducted.

The all-volunteer South Tacoma Economic Green Zone promotes sustainable economic development and environmental justice in a community marginalized and disenfranchised for decades, with heavy industrial zoning near residential, school, and recreational districts, causing significant health and safety issues for its diverse, low-income residents. South Tacoma residents are 58% non-white and 41% of children live below the poverty line. Currently, the group is fighting a mega-warehouse to be built on top of the aquifer, in a formerly redlined neighborhood, set to pave over 125 acres of wetlands and greenspace, in a community already blighted by toxic air. They’ve joined the EPA and state and local health departments in calling on the City of Tacoma to require a Health Impact Assessment for the project. As well, they lead the call to update the South Tacoma Groundwater Protection District, urging a moratorium on further development until the code is updated and additional studies conducted.

In South Tacoma, Bridge Industrial prepares to build a massive warehouse complex on a delisted Superfund site. Residents and environmental activists are concerned about impacts on local wetlands, air quality, the aquifer, increased traffic and pollution in an already burdened low-income community.

Contact
Heidi Stephens, Board Member
Climate impacts
Air Pollution, Drought, Erosion-Subsidence, Flooding, Heat, Sea Level Rise, Superfund Sites, Water Contamination, Wildfires
Strategies
Affordable Housing, Community Farm/Gardens, Community Science, Fighting Industrial Contamination, Green Infrastructure, Halting Bad Development, Nature-Based Solutions, Policy Reform, Renewable Energy
Environmental Justice Concerns
Air & Water Pollution, development, Superfund site, dumping/landfill, noise/light pollution, groundwater contamination, PFAS/PFOS, sewage/sewage treatment
501c3 Tax Deductible
No
Accepting Donation
No