Seattle RCAA was formerly called the Aircraft Noise Group. A task force of the Seattle Community Council Federation, it was first formed when the FAA moved the flight routes out of Sea-Tac directly over the middle of the Seattle, Federal Way and north Tacoma (1989). ANG filed suit in the 9th Circuit Federal Court to try to force the FAA to write an Environmental Impact Statement. The FAA argued that they didn't need to do an EIS because they weren't creating new noise, just moving the old noise around. They told the judges that they would certainly do one if they created new noise through, for example, adding a third runway at Sea-Tac, which was "not a gleam in anyone's eye," the federal attorney told the judges.) Furthermore, the FAA argued, there were no impacts, and the reason they knew there were no impacts was that they aren't required to study them. The FAA prevailed. (See SCCF v. FAA) Our group began a fund to send the judges to "common sense" classes, and moved onto to follow the third runway issue.

In the third runway draft environmental impact statement, the FAA and the Port assume that jets creating 70-75 decibels in Seattle neighborhoods are silent. Not only can any citizen with ears perceive this as a lie, our group views it as a way breaking their promise to the federal judges to investigate the real impact of the noise & air pollution should they create "new noise" by constructing a third runway. Below are our comments to the Expert Panel on the noise levels measured in Seattle and our comments to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. We have joined the RCAA and recently changed our name to make it clear that we were opposed to the third runway and strongly support accountability at the Port of Seattle. You can write to us at Seattle RCAA Box 250, 117 E. Louisa, Seattle, WA 98102.