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.