The proposed bill seeks to enhance environmental justice in Washington State by mandating that project decisions consider the impacts on pollution-burdened communities. It introduces the requirement for an "environmental justice impact statement" for potentially impactful projects, which must assess existing environmental conditions, potential stressors, and the project's cumulative impacts. This statement must be publicly accessible and include community engagement opportunities. The bill also establishes criteria for lead agencies to deny or mitigate projects that could exacerbate environmental and public health stressors, emphasizing that projects must demonstrate a "compelling public interest" to proceed if they would disproportionately affect these communities.

Additionally, the bill requires project proponents to analyze and propose control measures to mitigate adverse impacts, with the lead agency having the authority to deny projects that do not meet this standard unless a compelling public interest is demonstrated. It specifies that lead agencies can impose conditions on projects and must include a project-wide risk assessment in the environmental justice impact statement. The legislation clarifies that the obligations of lead agencies are supplementary to existing laws and allows for reimbursement of costs incurred during the impact statement process. The Department of Ecology is also given the authority to update the definition of "pollution burdened community" based on future tools from the United States Council on Environmental Quality.