The Airport Communities Podcast
On May 22, 2026 the Sustainable Airport Master Plan DEIS was released and a sixty day public comment period began.
Our second in a series of 3 minute explainers on how you can help your community by being patient and providing high quality comments. It is not click bait to say: It’s easier than you think. It’s not what you think.
In our last one Ep #26 (1/3), we noticed that the initial set of documents uploaded by the Port had at least two flaws. Since no one else seemed to notice we immediately questioned how seriously anyone was taking the ticking clock of ’60 days!’
Background
The 2025 NEPA process was an Environmental Assessment (EA) — a much lighter review than an EIS. The FAA is required to choose an EA (to speed permitting) if the airport owner demonstrate that the project(s) likely pose no major mitigation challenges. That 2025 final document was prox. 3,650 pages.
The Port of Seattle heard this critique loud and clear. In fact, it complained loudly over the Trump Executive Orders stripping various categories from consideration. It promised a much more thorough, complete State EIS process. But being much more sotto voce over the fact that with this process they are the approver. They (literally) sign off on their own environmental review.
Erratum: The video says that the SAMP EIS is prox. 3,700 pages. The total page count is closer to 3,650 — almost identical to the Final NEPA EA. Nevertheless, we regret the error.
It may be coincidental that the two page counts are almost identical, but we are skeptical. An EIS for any large construction project is typically many hundreds of pages. As one example, the Third Runway EIS was almost twice as long.
Topics
- 1996 – Sea-Tac Airport Third Runway EIS
- 2025 – Trump Executive Orders on EJ and Cumulative Impacts
- 2025 – FAA SAMP NEPA Final ROD/FONSI
- 2025 – Port of Seattle press release on SAMP-NTP/SAMP-SEPA DEIS
- 2026 – SAMP/SEPA Draft EIS
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