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The Newsletter of the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs Vol. 6, No. 3 Fall 2000 ����� ��� ����� ������ �������� ������������� As most readers know, on 28 September the Port of Seattle formally withdrew its second appli- cation to the Department of Ecology and to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for official approval to destroy wetlands west of the present Airport, and to relocate part of Miller Creek, for its third- runway project at Sea-Tac Airport. Under the federal Clean Water Act, the De- partment of Ecology is charged with determining whether an applicant’s plan to build in wetlands provides “reasonable assurance” that State water- quality criteria will not be violated. The Corps of Engineers then determines whether the harm to wetlands is “in the public interest” and otherwise in compliance with the Clean Water Act. Without approval from the two agencies, the Port cannot legally proceed with its third-runway construction work in the wetlands. The best way to understand what has happened is to review the chronology. September 1999. The Port submitted its second application to the Corps and Ecology, after having to withdraw its 1997 application because of gross under-statement of the amount of wet- lands involved. Ecology had 365 days to pass on the application. The Engineers had previously an- nounced that they would not decide till after Ecol- ogy had finished its work. Spring & Summer 2000. Port of Seattle sub- mitted voluminous revised documents, attempt- ing to justify the plan, some as late as…
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