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Airport Communities Coalition (ACC) files Notice of Appeal with the Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) of the Department of Ecology’s reissued/amended Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Order No. 1996-4-02325 (Amended – 1), issued September 21, 2001, for Sea-Tac Airport (STIA) third runway project by Port Of Seattle. ACC raises nine supplemental grounds including violation of WAC 173-225-030(1), (2), (3) public notice requirements; failure to comply with 40 C.F.R. §121.2(a)3 and §121.2(b); improper limitation to ‘Port 404 projects’; inadequate geographical, operational, and temporal scope; violation of WAC 173-201A-160(3)(a) and (b); NPDES permit supersession clause; elimination of pre-construction hydrologic monitoring; reduced wetlands buffer protections; and weakened fill acceptance criteria under Condition E. Filed under PCHB Nos. 01-133 and 01-150. Attorneys Helsell Fetterman LLP and Rachael Paschal Osborn.

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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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