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At a workshop held by
Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) on October 22, it was
learned that staff at the planning
agency have quietly abandoned the agency's pledge to work
for a second regional airport, to take strain off Sea-Tac
Airport.
In the working papers prepared for the seventh annual
review of compliance with conditions laid down by PSRC
for its planning approval of the third runway project at
Sea-Tac Airport, there was no mention of progress in starting
a second major regional airport. This has been a stated
goal of PSRC since 1993, and was confirmed in 1996.
Highline Schools progress hailed
A positive note was struck at
the workshop in the report from Highline School District
(delivered by Phyllis Byers,
President of the School Board). She noted that noise insulation
work is well underway, with construction of one new school
for noise mitigation purposes have begun in August, & three
other new schools also being started at the same time.
To date, the promised funds for noise insulation & related
work in the schools have come in as pledged.
Other progress nominal to non-existent
Very little additional progress
in reducing noise impacts was reported. While the Port
and PSRC representatives expressed
satisfaction that a Part 150 study at the Airport had been
completed, they failed to note that most of the substantive
recommendations of that study had been discarded by Port
staff and the Port Commission, leaving only more noise
insulation, some additional buy-outs, and the usual ineffective "voluntary" noise
reduction measures that airlines are asked to follow, but
don't. (See Portspin)
New regional airport not needed for
30 years?
An RCAA representative at the
meeting asked about progress in developing a new
regional airport & was
told that PSRC has now concluded that there will not be
a need for a second major airport for another 30 years,
because "capacity" at Sea-Tac will be sufficient
for the next three decades. This assessment is apparently
not supported by any new studies of future air-travel demand, & seems
to contradict breezy assertions by Sea-Tac Airport staff
that huge growth in air travel is just around the corner.
The need for an additional facility rests on many other
factors besides nominal capacity. These include the following:
- the region has no back-up for the
inevitable occasions when Sea-Tac is non-functional (earthquake,
fire, sabotage,
heavy fog, snow, to name a few). Earthquakes that close
Sea-Tac also impact Boeing Field (which is still experiencing
runway problems from the Nisqually quake of February
2001).
- the need to minimize aviation impacts
on communities surrounding Sea-Tac.
- the convenience of travelers
(especially from the fast-growing regions north & east
of Seattle proper), who find it increasingly burdensome
to travel to & from Sea-Tac
through the freeway mess.
- the undesirability of granting a
monopoly on airport services to one entity.
If serious effort had been put
into developing a new regional airport starting
in 1993, when PSRC made this
a goal, planes would likely be flying out of that
new facility right now. Construction of airports requires
planning,
site selection, financing arrangements, & a variety
of approvals from agencies at every level of government.
The time to move forward for the second regional
airport is now, not 30 years from now.
No-one is very good at predicting
future air travel, especially 30 years downstream. The
prudent thing to do is to plan & build
a second airport. We will certainly need it if the growth
in air travel resumes. The region would benefit from having
a second facility, even at present traffic levels. So,
it's imprudent to do nothing to implement the second airport,
on the assumption that air travel will remain at present
levels.
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