Perhaps the editorial will help pull the Seattle Port Commissioners’ heads out of the sand.
Sea-Tac cannot support projected increases in passengers. In 2015, Sea-Tac served 42 million passengers. The port’s master plan projects 66 million by 2034. So what to do? Negotiate with the Washington congressional delegation to move Joint Base Lewis-McChord to Moses Lake, one of the largest commercial airports west of the Mississippi, with an underutilized 13,500-foot main runway, one of the longest in the nation, and far closer to the Yakima Training Center. Eastern Washington could use the “business.” Then move Sea-Tac to JBLM, served by a rapid-transit system from Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia.
In addition, as a resident 16 miles north of Sea-Tac, in 2012 I successfully appealed our property-tax assessment resulting in a property-tax reduction due to Sea-Tac overflight air traffic noise. This reduction in property values throughout Seattle due to Sea-Tac is an unacknowledged cost of the port’s third runway.
David E. Ortman, Seattle