MEDIA ADVISORY: Rep. Orwall to participate in Airport Communities Solutions Summit this Friday

This Friday, State Representative Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, will participate in the Airport Communities Solutions Summit hosted by the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences in collaboration with Mira’s Garden, SeaTac, WA; Mothers Out Front – East Boston, MA; UW Interdisciplinary Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomics and Environment (EDGE Center); Air Partners Group at Olin College of Engineering, MA; and Massachusetts State Representative Adrian Madaro.

WHAT: Airport Communities Solutions Summit

WHEN: Part 1: Friday, June 18, 2021, 8:00-10:00 AM. Part 2: Saturday, July 17, 2021 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM.

WHERE: Livestreamed event

For information, registration, and agenda, please go to the event website: https://deohs.washington.edu/airport_communities_summit

The event will bring together community members, researchers and policymakers from Washington state, Massachusetts, New York, California, the Federal Government, and the European Union to develop solutions that promote health and well-being in airport communities.

Rep. Orwall will present with the Washington state team and will deliver closing remarks. She has advocated and secured funding to address airport issues, including air quality, noise mitigation, and siting of a new airport:

  • In 2017, she secured an appropriation of $250,000 for the University of Washington Mobile ObserVations of Ultrafine Particles (MOV-UP) Study, a two-year study to assess ultrafine pollution particles within 10 miles of the Sea-Tac International Airport in the direction of aircraft flight.
  • In 2018, she secured an appropriation of $300,000 with local match required for the Washington State Department of Commerce Sea-Tac Airport Impact Study to analyze the impacts that current airport operations and expansions have on public health, transportation, parking, public safety, property values and economic development in the surrounding cities and other impacted neighborhoods.
  • In 2019, she secured an appropriation of $125,000 for Public Health – Seattle & King County to conduct a study on the population health impact of the Sea-Tac Airport communities. That same year, she sponsored the House companion of a measure to create a state Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission tasked with identifying a location for a new primary commercial aviation facility.
  • In 2020, she sponsored House Bill 2315, aimed at addressing noise mitigation in airport communities.
  • And in 2021, she secured an appropriation of $940,000 for the University of Washington Healthy Schools pilot to reduce exposure to air pollution and improve air quality in schools.

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