Airport Communities Coalition Lawsuit
Over Flawed Army Corps Permit
Halts Wetlands Filling

At a closed press conference on Friday, 13 December, the Army Corps of Engineers issued a Section 404 permit to the Port of Seattle, allowing it to fill wetlands areas on the west side of Sea-Tac Airport as part of the third-runway project.

Before the ink was dry on the permit, however, the Airport Communities Coalition (ACC) filed a legal challenge in federal district court and an injunction was obtained halting any filling for the time being.

The initial analysis by RCAA’s reviewers agrees the permit is faulty and must be challenged in court. On the other hand, this permit also has bad news for the runway project. More...

RCAA Commissions Study of
Arsenic Fall-out Problems in Runway
Construction Zone

A consultant to the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs is preparing a study of arsenic issues at the third-runway construction site. In our next webletter, we will report the results of that study. Preliminary analysis suggests that there is a serious arsenic-contamination problem, which was not addressed by the Army Engineers.

Much of South-West King County has been heavily dusted by arsenic, lead, & cadmium from the former Asarco smelter at Ruston, Washington. Each study to date in the Highline district has found more areas of contamination, at more serious levels, than previously known.

Arsenic contamination is also an issue in the proposal to re-open the gravel mine on Maury Island.

Please send copies of letters you write to the editors of the local papers to rcaa@earthlink.net, so that we can post them.

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