During Executive Session on Friday, February 28, HB1303-1st Substitute was voted out of the House Appropriations. As of Monday, it has been moved to the Rules Committee where it waits for a hearing – a final step before obtaining a floor vote and becoming legislation!
We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but in its second year the bill known as the CURB Act has already gotten much further than some expected.
As previously reported, the bill is meant as a follow-up to the 2021 HEAL Act which established the concept of overburdened communities – which includes everyone under the flight path.
This new legislation tries to put that into action by adding a layer of environmental justice to large project permitting through the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). This is critical to airport projects like the SAMP because it would require consideration of the cumulative impacts of all aspects of airport projects – not only noise and air pollution.
- Follow Progress on HB1303 (includes links to comment in favor of the bill and sign up for hearing notifications.)
- Previous Coverage: HB1303 Introduction: Environment Committee Hearing
My interest in HB1303 is with regards to the addition of the 3rd runway to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. I purchased my home about 35 years ago, which is located about two miles east of the airport and before the 3rd runway was put in service. Noise was not an issue then, and when the plan for the addition of the 3rd runway was announced, it was stated that it’d only be used sporadically in certain weather conditions. This is has turned out to not be the case at all. It’s used constantly, and the resulting noise makes nighttime sleep difficult. Being a shorter runway leads to more throttle needed on takeoff, meaning more noise. Similarly, landings require more thrust-reverser usage, and again, more noise.
As noise was never an issue at my location before the addition of the 3rd runway, I’ve never had any sound suppression assistance. I’m requesting that now; both to assist in my being able to get a healthy night’s sleep, and to not diminish the value of my home should I ever attempt to sell it.