This legal brief was filed before Washington State's Pollution Control Hearings Board by community groups challenging a stormwater discharge permit issued to the Port of Seattle for Sea-Tac Airport. The groups argue that Lake Reba, a detention pond on airport property, should be protected as a 'water of the state' and that the permit unlawfully fails to regulate or monitor the airport's industrial stormwater discharges from Lake Reba into Miller Creek. The appellants contend that, unlike other waterways affected by the airport, Lake Reba's discharge point was not even identified as an outfall, leaving it subject to no effluent limits, monitoring, or reporting requirements.Open full document
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Pre-hearing brief filed by Airport Communities Coalition (ACC) and Citizens Against Seatac Expansion (CASE) before the Pollution Control Hearings Board in consolidated cases PCHB Nos. 03-140, 03-141, 03-142. The brief argues that the stormwater permit issued by the Washington Department of Ecology is unlawful because it fails to protect Lake Reba as waters of the state and contains no controls for Lake Reba’s discharges into Miller Creek. Appellants contend that Lake Reba, built on a pre-existing pond within a delineated wetland complex, qualifies as waters of the state and should be subject to the same effluent limitations and monitoring requirements as other airport discharges.