A January 1995 order from Washington State's Puget Sound Regional Council Expert Arbitration Panel addresses noise reduction requirements at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The Panel ruled that the Port of Seattle must provide objective, measurable evidence of meaningful real-world noise reductions in surrounding communities by 1996, not merely demonstrate compliance with existing Noise Budget goals or monitoring programs. The Panel also found the Port's proposed Noise Validation Methodology insufficient, citing concerns that the 11 existing remote monitoring stations did not adequately represent the full range of noise experienced by impacted residents.Open full document
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The Expert Arbitration Panel on Noise and Demand/System Management Issues issued this order regarding Phase I Noise Issues at Sea-Tac Airport, defining the scope of the Panel’s inquiry into whether the Port of Seattle has achieved measurable reductions in on-the-ground noise impacts. The Panel concludes that the Port must provide reliable evidence of objectively measurable, meaningful noise reduction in affected communities by 1996, and finds that the proposed Noise Validation Methodology (NVM) is insufficient as presented. The order addresses the inadequacy of existing Remote Monitoring System sites and the DNL metric alone for demonstrating required noise reductions.