Earth Ministry / Washington Interfaith Power & Light

Earth Ministry/WA IPL

For a Just and Sustainable World

Tacoma Mega Warehouse

History/Background

In late 2021, Bridge Point Tacoma LLC, a subsidiary of Bridge Industrial, acquired 160 acres of land in South Tacoma with plans to build a 2.5 million square foot Mega-Warehouse, the equivalent of 50 football fields of warehouse. Inspite of the project reporting to increase traffic by 10-12 thousand vehicles trips daily, the plan to pave over 130 acres covering an aquifer and wetlands with heat-absorbing asphalt and cutting down additional tree canopy in a portion of the city that only currently has 9% coverage, the City of Tacoma Planning and Development Services Department issued a permit for the project without requiring a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

In early Spring 2023, Earth Justice filed an appeal on behalf of the South Tacoma Neighborhood Council and 350Tacoma, with hopes of overturning the “mitigated determination of non-significance,” which allowed the project to proceed without a full EIS. Since then, the appeal has been heard by the City Examiner and a decision has yet to be made.

Equal Access to Clean Air, Clean Water

As people of faith and conscience, we believe that environmental justice and public health are moral issues. Neither the environment nor those living on this planet should be subjected to toxic living conditions and for far too long those who call South Tacoma their home have been sacrificed to hazardous air and water quality.

This pattern of treating South Tacomans as dispensable, continued in the permitting process because the City of Tacoma did not require Bridge Industrial to conduct a full Health Impact Assessment (HIA), despite being planned for a historically red-lined area of Tacoma where residents already suffer with the second worst air quality in the state, and since have refused to conduct an independent HIA on behalf of all of the inhabitants in Tacoma and the surrounding areas. People in this neighborhood live 6 years less than Pierce County residents, in general.  The warehouse would bring thousands of diesel trucks into an already overburdened area, and the City has refused to complete a Health Impact Assessment.

A proverb from the Cree Nation summarizes this well saying, “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” As people connected to many spiritual traditions we recognize the destructive power of greed and the toll that it continues to take on all of the earth. The impacts of this permitted project will not be contained by the South Tacoma zip codes and so we need a faithful response to #StopTacomaMegaWarehouse, to address historic and current injustices that treat this areas and their inhabitants as dispensable.

You can learn more about the health impacts of fossil fuels, deforestation, environmental racism, and redlinging using the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Equity Map.

Current Action

#STOPTacomaMegaWarehouse Rally and Canvass

Petition Tacoma City Council for a Health Impact Assessment

It’s time to raise our voices to call for a Health Impact Assessment, as well as transparency about the siting, building, and future economic activity slated for this warehouse. Residents deserve to have a say in their community.

Send a message to Tacoma Mayor and City Council:
“Tacomans deserve clean air and unpaved wetlands”

Partners

350 Tacoma
Climate Alliance South Sound
The Conversation 253

Additional Resources

News/Press Releases:  

Earth Ministry/WAIPL works within the unceded territories of Northwest Native nations. Our office is on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People past and present. Land acknowledgement is one way to resist erasure of Indigenous histories as well as to honor tribes and the land itself.