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Dr. Peter Willing, an environmental and water quality expert, submits a declaration supporting the Airport Communities Coalition’s motion for stay regarding the Department of Ecology’s Water Quality Certification for construction of a third runway at Sea-Tac Airport. He identifies significant defects in the certification, focusing on two areas: the Port of Seattle’s unproven plan to augment low summer stream flows with stored stormwater, and inadequate stormwater management provisions. He argues that the Port has provided only vague promises without design details, and that the certification fails to provide reasonable assurance that construction will not violate water quality standards.

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As the source for federal transportation grants, the Puget Sound Regional Council was charged with developing a system to meet the growing need for commercial aviation. When the search for a second airport failed, they authorized the Port of Seattle to build the Third Runway, with a mandate to develop a noise abatement and mitigation program. In their effort to stop the Third Runway, the ACC argued over every detail of the Port's efforts--including property buyouts and sound insulation. The dispute was meant to be settled by a three member Expert Arbitration Panel. This is their final report. It finds 2-1, that the Port's program was insufficient in several respects. Despite that, funding for the Third Runway was approved by the PSRC, and the 'Port Package' program, proceeded largely unchanged. Expert Arbitration Panel's final decision finding that the Port of Seattle had not shown sufficient reduction in real on-the-ground noise impacts to satisfy noise reduction conditions required for approval of a third runway at Sea-Tac International Airport. The majority decision concluded the Port's noise abatement programs were insufficient despite being impressive in scope.

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