Third-Runway Permit: Port and Ecology Push To Overturn Environmental Protections

Tough environmental restrictions on third-runway construction are headed for review in the Court of Appeals as the result of recent court action.

Appeals were filed separately by the Port, the Department, and the Airport Communities Coalition in Superior Court in King County and in Thurston County, but a Thurston County judge has transferred the cases in that county to King County, and ordered all appeals consolidated into one case. The Pollution Control Hearings Board has also certified its order as having State-wide significance, so that the appeals can be heard in the Court of Appeals without prior hearings at the trial-court level.

No hearing dates have been set in the appellate court, and there is still some uncertainty whether the case will end up in the division of the court that sits at Seattle (Division I) or the division based at Tacoma (Division II). Airport Communities Coalition would prefer the Tacoma division, while the Port prefers the Seattle one.