This FAQ first explains environmental justice and its relevance to San Juan County, then describes the HEAL Act and why the County should voluntarily adopt similar principles. It ends with current opportunities for residents to participate in decisions affecting water, shorelines, land use, habitat, and climate resilience.

What Is Environmental Justice?

Environmental justice recognizes that everyone—regardless of sex, race, gender identity, age, income, or class—deserves a meaningful voice in decisions that affect the health of the environment they call home. Low-income and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards,¹ and this is no accident. Discriminatory practices like redlining, and the higher barriers to civic engagement that historically disenfranchised communities face, have made it difficult for those communities to access safe homes, schools, and jobs.²

Here in San Juan County, these barriers become obvious when individuals attempt to navigate the public processes both at the Town and County levels. Some of these barriers include language barriers, inaccessible meeting times, unfamiliar government processes, highly technical documents, and ADA-approved routes and entries; all of which often prevent meaningful participation in decisions affecting clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, land use, and climate resilience here on our islands.

For almost 50 years, Friends of the San Juans’ mission has been to bring people and nature together to protect the San Juan Islands and Salish Sea through education, science, policy, and law. Friends has engaged communities, Tribes, decision-makers, and partners to shape policies that conserve natural resources, including land, air, and water. Most recently, during the County Comprehensive Plan update, Friends engaged historically underrepresented groups—including Spanish speakers, low-income residents, seniors, youth, and disabled members of our community—to ensure their voices were heard as one of the County’s most critical plans was updated for the next 20 years.

With Latina/o residents making up 10% of the County’s population, public engagement must include translated materials and interpretation at council and planning commission meetings. Healthy ecosystems depend on informed and engaged communities. San Juan County should make public engagement more accessible and establish inclusive participation as both a core value and a policy in County Code. The future of our islands depends on it.

Why is Environmental Justice important in San Juan County? 

In Washington state, environmental hazards like contaminated sites, incinerators, and solid waste landfills are more concentrated in low-income and BIPOC communities.³ That exposure leads to a higher risk of adverse health outcomes, aggravating other risk factors like stress, poverty, and racism.⁴ Although San Juan County may look different from more urban or industrialized areas, environmental justice issues still arise here through the way public decisions are made and whose voices are included in those decisions. Despite facing many barriers to effective civic engagement, BIPOC communities “have been, and continue to be, the primary leaders of the Environmental Justice movement in the United States.”⁵ Washington state’s legislative and executive branches have begun making efforts to remove those barriers and to allow underserved communities to have a greater voice in their own governance.

In San Juan County more specifically, environmental issues arise when overburdened and vulnerable communities are not intentionally included in public decision-making. These local issues demonstrate why environmental justice in San Juan County must address both environmental protection and access to meaningful participation:

• Land-use development
• Access to waste disposal
• Water table levels and health
• Access to clean water, PFAs-contaminated water
• Pesticide exposure
• Limited transportation options
• Ferry-dependence
• Seasonal work schedules
• Language access in public processes
• Affordable, up to standard housing
• Shoreline and habitat vulnerability
• Energy facility/development siting, and use
• Threat of data centers

what is the HEAL act?

The state’s effort to remove these historical barriers is reflected in the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, which the legislature passed in 2021. This law builds on the recommendations of the Environmental Justice Task Force,⁶ defining environmental justice as:

the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, rules, and policies. Environmental justice includes addressing disproportionate environmental and health impacts in all laws, rules, and policies with environmental impacts by prioritizing vulnerable populations and overburdened communities, the equitable distribution of resources and benefits, and eliminating harm.⁷

HEAL makes environmental justice a priority by mandating that certain state agencies follow principles of environmental justice when they take significant actions.⁸ The law requires the state departments of Ecology, Agriculture, Commerce, Health, Natural Resources, and Transportation, as well as the Puget Sound Partnership, “identify and address environmental health disparities”⁹ in order to mitigate and prevent injustices in the future. ¹⁰ They must also incorporate environmental justice directly into their strategic plans ¹¹ and create community engagement plans.¹²

Community engagement is heavily intertwined with the mission of environmental justice. Because negative environmental impacts are so often concentrated in already- overburdened communities, it is important that state agencies use their power to lower barriers to the political process. We are the experts of our own communities; when we are well-informed and afforded meaningful input on important decisions, we have the power to identify and prevent environmental injustice before it happens.

What does this mean for islanders?

For island residents, this matters because state agency decisions shape many of the systems that affect local environmental health, including housing, shoreline management, natural resources, public health, and climate resilience. The HEAL Act helps ensure that communities most affected by those decisions have a stronger voice in how state agencies plan, prioritize, and act.

That same principle applies to conservation. Environmental justice and conservation are deeply interconnected because healthy ecosystems provide essential benefits to human communities, and meaningful community participation makes conservation efforts more effective, sustainable, and legitimate. Conservation advances environmental justice by protecting the air, water, land, and natural resources on which communities depend, while environmental justice strengthens conservation by ensuring that environmental decisions reflect the needs, rights, knowledge, and lived experiences of the people most affected.

This connection matters because both nature and working-class communities are often treated as resources to be used rather than valued and protected. Effective environmental justice and conservation efforts require recognizing that people are part of nature, not separate from it. Incorporating lived experience into legal and policy frameworks helps create a more complete understanding of what is at stake, who is affected by environmental harm, and what solutions will actually serve the community. People are more likely to protect what they can see themselves in. When conservation is framed as protecting places separate from human communities, it overlooks the reality that people are part of the ecosystems they depend on. We are not apart from nature—we are part of it. When environmental protection reflects that relationship, conservation becomes more inclusive and environmental justice becomes more achievable. Ultimately, the health of our communities and the health of our ecosystems are inseparable: when ecosystems are harmed, people are harmed as well.

Does the HEAL Act apply to San Juan County?

The HEAL Act does not currently apply to local governments, so San Juan County is not required to follow its rules for engaging overburdened and vulnerable communities. However, the County can choose to adopt similar environmental justice principles voluntarily and make them part of local law and policy.

Why should San Juan County opt-in? 

While it is vital that state agencies follow the HEAL Act to advance environmental justice for vulnerable populations and overburdened communities, local governments also have an important role to play. Our often-unheard communities face issues that risk going unresolved unless local governments actively and systematically make efforts to address them.

San Juan County has historically made great effort to reflect our community values in its policies. Today, these values include environmental protection and community inclusion.

While local governments are not bound by HEAL, the County can choose to uphold those same principles of environmental justice voluntarily. Looking to the language of HEAL as inspiration, San Juan County can pass an ordinance that ensures local government’s commitment to environmental justice by requiring County departments ensure our historically underserved communities are included in civic processes. By voluntarily adopting environmental justice regulations on our islands, the County enshrines our island community’s values of environmentalism and inclusion into local law.

Conservation efforts in San Juan County depend on meaningful participation from the entire community. When engagement is not inclusive, land-use, development, and environmental health decisions may fall short of fully protecting our communities and ecosystems.

Current Opportunities for Civic Engagement in State and Local Environmental Decisions

Submit comments on the Critical Areas Ordinance update

Issue: Growth Management Act – Critical Areas Ordinance Update – Critical Areas Ordinance updates give island residents an important opportunity to help shape how our most sensitive natural areas are protected. These updates will determine how the county manages wetlands, frequently flooded areas, landslide and erosion hazards, aquifers, and important fish and wildlife habitats.

Why it matters: By participating in the update process, community members can ensure that local values, concerns, and priorities are reflected in the regulations that guide future development and conservation decisions. If residents do not get involved, the County will still be required to adopt updated regulations under state law, but the unique needs and concerns of island communities may not be fully considered. Public participation is the best way to help create rules that both protect critical natural resources and reflect the realities of living and working in San Juan County.

How to participate:

• Public comments can be made here.
• To learn more about Friends’ concerns, read our comment letters, or the CAO updated language; click here.
  Deadline: end of 2026.

Follow Ecology’s shoreline rulemaking

Issue: Shoreline Management Act –Sea Level Rise Amendments – With more than 400 miles of shoreline, San Juan County has more shoreline than any other county in the United States. That extensive shoreline makes our islands especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and increased flooding.

Why it matters: As the Washington Department of Ecology updates the Shoreline Management Act’s proposed sea level rise regulations, it is essential that San Juan County residents have a voice in the rulemaking process. The unique challenges our island communities face may not be fully understood or addressed unless local residents share their experiences and concerns. Community participation is critical to ensuring that these regulations reflect the realities of living on the islands and help protect the people, places, and ecosystems that make San Juan County unique.

How to participate:

• Public comment by emailing SMARulemaking@ecy.wa.gov while Ecology continues to develop the rule until the end of summer 2026.
• You can also sign onto their mailing list to find out when they will be accepting comments on the proposed rules later this September.
• Learn more about Friends’ concerns and read the comment letter we signed onto here.

Deadline: Learn more about the rulemaking, including the timeline, the draft language,
and upcoming public meetings here.

Washington’s Water Future

Issue: Washington’s Water Future is a statewide initiative to help Washington prepare
for growing water challenges. The Department of Ecology is hosting online Public Input
Sessions you can attend.

Why it matters: As a community dependent on our aquifers for potable water, it is vital
that we participate in this state initiative

How to participate:

• Subscribe to the email list here.
• Join an input session by signing up for one of the public sessions coming up here.
• Fill out the survey.
• And if you have questions email Jennifer.Hennessey@ecy.wa.gov

Deadline: You have until September 18, 2026 to complete the survey.

Sign up for County land-use notices:

General Land Use Project and Environmental Review Public Engagement in San Juan County – Generally participating in land-use decision processes keeps community members informed about the decisions being made in our County, and further, provides members of the community to understand how the county enforces its own codes, and whether enforcement is consistent. Providing comment on project and environmental review means that community members can then save their place to appeal later on and ensure appropriate enforcement of the development code by San Juan County.

• If you would like to be generally engaged in land-use decisions being made in our county, please contact jillianu@sanjuancountywa.gov and ask her to add you to the mailing list.
• This will provide you with weekly/bi-weekly lists of land use applications being processed in our county, the timeframe in which you can engage in public comment, and the hearing date for the permit application (if there is one).

Contact Friends with questions

Email us: friends@sanjuans.org
Call us: 360-378-2319

Ask the County for Accessible Public Meetings

If you need Spanish interpretation or translated materials, email the County at sallyr@sanjuancountywa.gov.

You may also raise this request during public comment at a County Council meeting. Consider asking the County to provide Spanish interpretation and translation, and to schedule meetings at times that are more accessible for working community members.

1. EJTF Final Report pg. 14; RCW 70A.02.005(2). ↩︎
2. EJTF Final Report pg. 14 ↩︎
3. EJTF Final Report pg. 14 ↩︎
4. EJTF Final Report pg. 14-15. ↩︎
5. EJFT Final Report pg. 13 ↩︎
6. https://ecology.wa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/environmental-justice/heal;
   https://healthequity.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-01/EJTF%20Report_FINAL(1).pdf ↩︎
7. RCW 70A.02.010(8) (defining “environmental justice”) ↩︎
8. RCW 70A.02.020 (requiring covered agencies to comply with all provisions of this chapter, and
   encouraging all other state agencies to strive to do so); RCW 70A.02.010(12) (defining “significant
   agency action”). see also RCW 70A.02.005(4); RCW 70A.02.010(8); Heal Act Fact Sheet ↩︎
9. https://ecology.wa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/environmental-justice/heal ↩︎
10. See RCW 70A.02.005(2); RCW 70A.02.005 ↩︎
11. RCW 70A.02.040(1) ↩︎
12. RCW 70A.02.050(1) ↩︎