| The Supreme Court has set a date
of Tuesday, 18 November, for oral argument on the pending
appeal of the August 2002
order of the Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB), in
which 16 conditions were imposed on the State's water-quality
OK of the third-runway project. All parties must file their
briefs by 13 October. The argument will be heard at the
Court's hearing room in the Temple of Justice, Olympia.
No new evidence will be allowed. The court will hear cross appeals by
the Port of Seattle, the Department of Ecology, CASE,
and ACC. ACC argues that
the Board should have imposed even more stringent conditions
on the project, while the Port and Ecology argue that the
PCHB went too far. In particular, the Port & Ecology claim that the Board
went too far in relying on its own expertise, & the
testimony & other evidence from a two-week trial. The
Board should have relied on Ecology's expertise, not its
own, they say. The court has made it clear that
it expects to consider the issue of the constitutionality
of the "dirty fill bill"passed
in the regular session of this year's Legislature. This
is the issue that has caused 14 environmental groups to
submit a brief as
friends of the court, supporting ACC
in challenging the bill. The Pollution Control
Hearings Board has, most unusually, filed its own brief,
defending the legal standards used by the Board in deciding
appeals . Whether the environmental groups will be allowed to participate
in oral argument is not clear.
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