Truth in Aviation

On Thursday, July 11, the General Assembly of the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) will meet in Seattle to consider a proposal to approve the Port of Seattle's massive expansion program at Sea-Tac Airport, including a third runway, despite a final order of the PSRC's Expert Arbitration Panel denying such approval.

The July meeting will be preceded by a three-hour public hearing at the Flag Pavilion, Seattle Center, from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursday, June 27, and by a public-comment period at the start of the Assembly meeting, from 2 till 3.30 p.m. July 11.

The PSRC had previously adopted resolution A-93-03 saying the third runway would not be approved unless the independent panel confirmed that the Port had significantly reduced Sea-Tac noise. The Panel ruled in March the reduction of 0.9 decibels was within the margin of error of the study and not significant. At that point, the third runway was officially dead because the Port cannot get any federal funding for the project without PSRC approval.

To overcome this obstacle, Pierce County Executive and PSRC President Doug Sutherland persuaded the Executive Board to recommend to the Assembly that the Port be authorized to proceed immediately with Sea-Tac expansion, despite the Panel’s order, if the Port promises to undertake additional noise-mitigation measures.

These measures are to be selected by the Executive Board from suggestions made by the Expert Panel. However, the Panel did not say that implementation of its proposals would meet the noise-reduction conditions for approval of the third runway. Nor is the Panel to be reconvened to consider the effect of the Executive Board's plan.

PSRC has asked for and received comments about the cost and effectiveness of the Panel recommendations.

On May 30, the PSRC Executive Board held a workshop at Bellevue to review the panel recommendations, with representatives from Airport Communities Coalition, the Port, and FAA participating to explain their respective positions. Arriving Board members were met by a throng of sign-carrying picketers, chanting "PSRC has no in-teg-ri-ty". The agenda did not provide for a public-comment period. Nevertheless, the Board got an earful of comments when citizens responded with angry outbursts to perceived mis- statements in a rambling speech by Port Commissioner Pat Davis. This escalated into a series of critical comments, threats to have protesters removed, and, finally, a walk-out by half the audience.

In the official paperwork to be considered by the Assembly in July, the proposed overturn of the Panel order is presented. in the guise of an amendment to the PSRC's 1995 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). The text of the draft MTP amendment will not be distributed until June 10, after this newsletter has gone to press. PSRC staff will also include proposed language to enforce requirements for future Port action, and to monitor progress. PSRC recognizes that granting approval for the third runway and amending the MTP may require additional environmental studies, and has set a very tight deadline of June 12 for submitting requests to it for a supplemental environmental impact statement. The EIS Addendum issued on May 28, and available from PSRC (464-7090, FAX 587- 4825) contains no new information. PSRC apparently did not issue an EIS for its 1995 MTP, and is relying instead on its 1992 EIS for its Flight Plan Project and the 1996 FAA/POS EIS for the Sea-Tac Master Plan Update.

Texts of the PSRC announcements on the process and of comments by ACC and other interested parties on the proposal will be found at the RCAA home page http://www.rcaanews.org/rcaa.

Financed by a grant from the State Legislature, a seven-member interdisciplinary team retained in April by the City of Burien is studying possible measures to mitigate the impacts of a third Sea-Tac runway, if built. The team's final report is due in December 1996. The national architectural and planning firm Hellmuth, Obata, Kassbaum, Inc. (HOK) is the lead consultant. Also participating are Raytheon Engineers, & Constructors, transportation planners, who will also study noise and hydrology issues; Thomas/Lane, concentrating on socio-economic issues; and Mike McCormick, a specialist in impact assistance and mitigation planning.

Team leader Joe Pobiner, of HOK, describes the work as a "fall-back position [for airport cities & residents] if the litigation is not successful". The consultants, working with the City of Burien and other airport communities, will seek to describe the full impacts of the Airport expansion project, both during and after construction, and to devise fair and equitable treatment for all affected parties -- not just insulation, and not just in the 65 DNL noise contours.

Typical of the problems that the team expects to examine are effects of noise on property values and local tax revenues; traffic impacts from the massive dirt haul required for the new runway; new and better noise monitoring; effects of removing homes from neighborhoods;and school disruptions.

Preliminary work shows that the environmental impact statement for the Port's expansion underestimates harmful effects and the mitigation measures needed. The team will suggest appropriate mitigation measures and sources of financing for the mitigation. For further information, contact Fred Stouder, Burien City Manager, 241-4647, FAX, 248- 5539.

Airport Cities Respond to Port PR Campaign

While lobbyists for the Port of Seattle are spreading their claim that no one can win a lawsuit against an airport, the airport communities remain resolved to protect their rights in court if necessary. Airport Communities Coalition Executive Director Ken Reid says, "We will bring no nuisance lawsuits but you can expect lawsuits to be filed."

ACC has retained the services of probably the leading attorneys in this field, the Washington, D.C. , firm of Cutler & Stanfield.

Asked to comment on an article in the May 10 issue of the Highline Times, quoting a Texas mayor as advising cities here to work things out without litigation, Reid said: "It's not a question of working things out, as much as we might like that. Southwest King County already went through that with the Port in the 1970s, and we had a deal -- no third runway. Now look where we are!"

RCAA President Clark Dodge commented, "A third runway and a three-billion-dollar expansion project are simply unacceptable. In Dallas Fort Worth the neighboring communities cut the expansion from two runways to one. We can't cut one runway to half a runway."

Observers also noted that the principal Texas lawsuit was won by the airport communities. The Texas Supreme Court held that the airport authority was required by law to submit its expansion plans for approval by the three cities in which the Dallas Fort Worth airport is located. Later, the Texas Legislature amended the zoning law to remove that requirement.

Waste Action Project, a Seattle-based environmental group, and the Port of Seattle have filed a proposed consent decree to end a Clean Water Act citizen suit brought last August against the Port for violations at Sea-Tac International Airport. The lawsuit alleged violations of the Port's Clean Water Act discharge permit, resulting in pollution of Des Moines and Miller Creeks, and Puget Sound. (See earlier article in Summer 1995 "Truth in Aviation", vol.2, no.2, p.4.)

If approved, as expected, by U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein, the settlement will require the Port to make major improvements to the Airport's wastewater treatment system, designed to prevent any further violations. Richard A. Smith, attorney for the citizen group, estimates that the Port will spend $2,000,000 in facility improvements and removal of contaminated sledge from a treatment lagoon. In addition, the terms of the consent decree provide for cash payments of $125,000 for supplemental environmental projects, litigation expenses to Waste Action Project of $25,000, and a civil fine of $7500. When filed, the lawsuit was described as "groundless" by a Port of Seattle spokesperson.

Attorney Smith said that the agreed-upon improvements "have been overdue for years -- it's too bad that it took a lawsuit to get them made." Smith expressed satisfaction that the system will "work much better" and that "pollution of the creeks will be greatly reduced".

Sea-Tac Airport sits at the headwaters of Miller and Des Moines Creeks, both of which been seriously degraded as fish habitat since the airport started discharging its polluted run-off more than 40 years ago. Waste Action Project President Greg Wingard commented that the "Port deserved punishment for pollution of the creeks." The settlement provides for $25,000 to be directed primarily to involvement of high-school students in stream-stewardship activities.

Former Highline Water Commissioner Jeanne Moeller, now an RCAA Board member, welcomed the settlement but warned that it is only one step in cleaning up water pollution resulting from airport activities. "Sea-Tac is sited on top of a major aquifer, with pollution reaching as far down as 70 feet." She said that cleaning up the lagoon and reducing stream pollution will help with aquifer problems, but that the Port needs to pay much more attention to the health of the water supply. Moeller also warned that "one should never judge the Port by its promises but only by its deeds. Unfortunately, the record is sadly lacking."

The Port was represented by the Seattle law firm, Preston, Gates & Ellis.

EPA Questions FAA on Environmental Justice Issue

Councilman Sims Demands Answers

"Unusually high readings for average and peak [aircraft] noise levels" in the Rainier Valley area of Seattle have caused the Environmental Protection Agency to request the FAA to document these impacts and to adopt special mitigation measures. Noise monitoring (done with the RCAA's equipment) revealed noise levels not disclosed in the final environmental impact statement for Sea-Tac expansion.

The EPA reminded the FAA that many low-income families and members of ethnic minorities live in the Rainier Valley, bringing the area within the terms of Executive Order 12898. The Order is intended to foster non-discrimination in federal programs that substantially affect human health or the environment.

The EPA suggested that the FAA involve Rainier Valley residents in the planning process for the final EIS, & that the FAA develop further information about noise impacts, economic impacts.

King County Councilman Ron Sims has followed up with a letter of inquiry, pointing out that the FAA-prepared EIS fails to discuss single-event noise levels peaking at 80to 100 decibels in the Rainier Valley, and asking if the noise impacts are less damaging if they are recorded on the DNL basis rather than as single-event occurences.

UPDATES:

Michigan City Wins Lawsuit to Restrict Floatplane Use

A Federal appeals court has upheld the right of a municipality to use zoning rules to prohibit the operation of floatplanes on a lake within its boundaries. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that the Michigan city of Lake Angelus had full authority to use its zoning powers to designate plane landing sites. (The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which includes Washington, has ruled otherwise.) The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has pending before it an appeal involving similar issues, in which the Ohio city of Brook Park has used its zoning power to block expansion of Cleveland's airport.

Bridgeton Sues St. Louis

The City of Bridgeton, Missouri, has sued the City of St. Louis to block implementation of an expansion plan at St. Louis' Lambert Airport, which is located at Bridgeton. St. Louis intends to build in an area of Bridgeton that is not zoned for airport use. Bridgeton and other interested parties urge a less-intrusive and less-costly plan for expansion.

Lawsuit Leads to School Soundproofing Settlement in Chicago Area

As the result of a lawsuit brought by school districts around O'Hare International Airport, the City of Chicago, which operates the airport, has agreed to pay $12.2 million for additional school soundproofing at suburban schools with enrollments of over 9,000 students. The lawsuit was begun in 1989, and sought coverage of schools in several suburban districts by Chicago's existing school-soundproofing program. The settlement is a small part of Chicago's mitigation work. Using Federal funds, it has insulated 37 schools. The City, using proceeds from a $211 million bond issue backed by passenger facility charges, will also spend $95 million to soundproof another 27 schools and $80 million to soundproof 3,000 homes, as well as beginning an airfield drainage project. The insulation program will no longer require homeowners to waive their right to future lawsuits in order to participate.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said that the settlement "demonstrated the city's absolute, continued commitment to addressing noise at area schools".

Trial has been set for July 15 in the city of SeaTac’s lawsuit against the Port of Seattle, according to Bob McAdams, acting City Attorney. As reported in our Summer 1995 issue, SeaTac seeks a Superior Court Order upholding its authority to regulate development activities within the city, especially those at the Airport. The Port maintains that it alone has power to zone land that it owns or acquires. While other conflicts are also at issue, the critical point for RCAA supporters is the zoning future of the land that the Port needs to acquire West of the present Airport in order to build the planned runway.

Tukwila may withdraw from the Puget Sound Regional Council if the Expert Plane’s order is overturned, according to a letter dated May 15, from Mayor John W. Rants and council President Pam Carter.

Port third runway propaganda, such as a flier recently circulated with regional issues of various daily newspapers, is in conflict with FAA studies on this question: Will the third runway solve Sea-Tac’s bad weather problems?

The Port suggests that the Airport will work with equal efficiency in good weather and bad. The Port’s flier says that with a third runway "Sea-Tac will remain efficient in poor weather as well as in good weather."

This claim overlooks the fact that the new runway would be a "dependent" runway, not able to handle operate at full capacity in poor weather, because its traffic would be too close to the incoming planes using either of the old runways. Traffic can arrive side by side on independent runways. The most recent of numerous FAA studies on Sea-Tac capacity "Airport Capacity Plan Update", March 1994, states that landing on a third runway aircraft must be spaced 1.5 nautical miles (6000 feet) from other airport apart under poor (IFR) weather conditions. This means that aircraft must land on one runway at a time and a third runway will not solve Sea-Tac’s poor-weather problem despite its enormous cost.

In addition, the proposed new runway is parallel to and outside the other two, so that aircraft landing on a third runway must cross two active runway in order to reach the terminal, further reducing the potential capacity of the new runway.

RCAA Needs You! The Regional Commission on Airport Affairs was formed by citizens to help citizens. Before RCAA, the only place to get expert information on noise, air pollution, water pollution, Port waste, delays & capacity issues, new technologies, and regional (not parochial, Port) air transportation alternatives was the Port of Seattle. Through RCAA, citizens from all over the region can now find and develop independent information, analyze the issues, and present their facts to regional decision makers and the public.

You can help RCAA’s work through your contributions, your volunteer time, and your calls to public officials responsible for airport decisions. Please clip this form and send it in today. You will receive our thanks, a No Third Runway bumper strip, and our regular newsletter in return. Contributions are not tax deductible. RCAA, 19900 4th Ave. S.W. Normandy Park, WA 98166 tel. (206)824-3120

NAME (Please Print)____________________________________________________________

ADDRESS:____________________________________________________________________

CITY:________________________________________________________ZIP______________

Home Phone:____________________Work Phone:__________________FAX:_____________

E-mail:__________________________

Please send me_____ "No Third Runway" Bumper Strips. (No contribution required.)

I want to contribute $______________. Please phone me about volunteering______________

Truth in Aviation is published by the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs, a coalition of citizens groups concerned with airport expansion & air transportation issues. Closing Date this issue: 5/30/96.

[Back to Library]
[Back to Welcome]