Monday, August 29, 2005

Sea-Tac and Community Groups Reach Settlement

RCAA, C.A.S.E., and Port of Seattle Reach
Agreement on Sea-Tacs Pollution Permit;
Threats of Further Litigation Lifted



On Wednesday, 24 August, two citizen groups & the Port of Seattle signed a binding agreement to settle most of the issues remaining unresolved in the much-disputed basic water-pollution permit for Sea-Tac Airport. On the most critical issues, all parties agreed on the provisions to be included in the final, revised permit, pledging that there would be no appeals to the Pollution Control Hearings Board on these matters. Agreement was not reached on a few points, but the informal understanding is that there will be no appeals on these, either.

The final agreement covers more than one hundred disputed items. However, most of the discussion has centered around the Airport's discharges into Puget Sound. The principal concern has been with glycols found in de-icing compounds (harmful to aquatic life). Here, the community groups claim major gains. For its own reasons, the Airport has greatly sped-up the schedule for connecting its Industrial Waste Water system to the Metro treatment plant at Renton. The construction has now been completed (far earlier than previously planned. Testing of the pipeline is about to begin. And contaminated industrial waste water will be diverted to the Metro plant by Christmas. Second, the parties worked out an accelerated schedule for sharp reductions in the amount of glycol-contaminated waters that will still be sent, on occasion, into Puget Sound.
Signing the agreement were Lawrence P. Corvari, RCAA President; Brett Fish, C.A.S.E. President; & Michael Feldman, Deputy Managing Director, Aviation Divison, Sea-Tac Airport.

C.A.S.E. President, Mr. Fish said, "This agreement is a positive signal that marks the beginning of genuine efforts to repair nearly 60 years of damage to our streams and provide much more protection for the environment. At a future C.A.S.E. meeting, there will be full discussion of how the new permit will benefit the communities of Burien, Des Moines, and Normandy Park."

RCAA was represented in the negotiations by its water quality consultant, Greg Wingard. Bob Duffner was the principal negotiator for the Port, working with Susan Ridgely, and attorney Rick Poulin, of the law firm Smith and Lowney, acted for C.A.S.E.

RCAA will provide further details of the settlement in our next webletter. A copy of the letter is posted in our library at http://www.rcaanews.org/libwaterpoll.htm#agree.



1 Comments:

At 3:06 PM, Anonymous said...

Ecology News Release, Discussing Effect of Settlement (posted by RCAA editors)

Department of Ecology


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Oct. 17, 2005
05-255

Agreement sets new standards for Sea-Tac Airport stormwater permit

BELLEVUE . Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) will provide its highest-ever level of environmental protection to nearby streams and Puget Sound, under a revised stormwater permit issued by the state Department of Ecology (Ecology).

Ecology's revision carries out a directive from the state Pollution Control Hearings Board to reconsider two key parts of the permit, originally issued in 2003. The Port of Seattle, which owns the airport, and two citizens groups appealed the original version.

Sea-Tac, Citizens Against Airport Expansion (CASE), and the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs (RCAA) signed an accord in August to agree on key changes proposed by Ecology.

"We listened carefully and worked hard with both sides," said Kevin Fitzpatrick, a manager in Ecology's water-quality program. "Each had appealed for different reasons, and in the end, they agreed to cooperate to protect water quality and to accept the revised permit. We applaud this leap forward."

The permit covers all stormwater runoff on the entire Sea-Tac airport property, including the Third Runway construction project, general stormwater runoff from roads and roofs, and treatment of de-icing compounds that drain off 297 acres of taxiways and aprons. The key revisions affect general stormwater and the de-icing compound treatment system.

The revised permit sets tighter standards for the airport's plant that treats water contaminated by de-icing compounds and empties into Puget Sound. The airport is building a pipeline to King County's wastewater treatment plant in Renton to handle busy de-icing periods that generate higher contamination. The revised permit sets a lower trigger for the airport to divert flow from its plant to Renton, reducing de-icing related discharges to Puget Sound by 98 percent per year from current levels.

The airport will treat all general storm water discharges to meet state water-quality standards, under the permit's other key change, which re-designates Lake Reba as a natural water body. The permit originally viewed the lake, which is partially backed up by a dike, as a detention pond. It receives a significant share of Sea-Tac's storm water runoff.

The permit - which Ecology upgrades and renews every five years - is available on the Internet at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/permits/northwest_permits.html.
(Scroll down to Port of Seattle, Seattle - Tacoma Airport NPDES Permit Modification).

# # #

Contact: Larry Altose, public information officer, 425-649-7009

For more information:

Ecology's Sep. 4, 2003 news release on the original permit contains additional background information: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2003news/2003-179.html [not an active link – RCAA Eds.]

Office of Communication and Education Ecology's Home Page: http://www.ecy.wa.gov


Karen Campbell
Department of Ecology
Communication and Education
407-7006

 

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