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EXH AR023758: Internal NWS Email Chain — Turn Basin #3 Duwamish River Habitat Project, Material Disposal at STIA Third Runway Site

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In April–May 1999, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (NWS) staff exchanged emails debating whether to use a Port of Seattle Third Runway construction site as a disposal area for roughly 60,000 cubic yards of excavated material from the Duwamish River Turn Basin #3 habitat restoration project. Officials weighed whether this arrangement could compromise the Corps' impartiality in its pending permit decision for the Third Runway Project, ultimately concluding it would not, since disposal would occur on upland areas outside Corps jurisdiction and King County bore responsibility for finding a disposal site. The collaboration was seen as potentially saving the habitat restoration project up to $200,000 in disposal costs.

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Army Corps of Engineers (NWS) internal email chain dated April 30–May 2, 1999, among Paul Cooke, Jonathan Freedman, Wanda Gentry, Siri Nelson, Lester Soule, W. Brett Amrine, Patrick Cagney, David Garton, and Joseph Duncan. Subject is the Section 1135 Duwamish River Turn Basin #3 habitat restoration project (Hamm Creek channel), sponsored by King County, which would generate approximately 60,000 cubic yards of disposal material. The emails address whether disposing that material at the Port of Seattle’s third runway construction site would compromise the Corps’ ability to issue an unprejudiced Section 404 permit decision on the Third Runway project, then under unprecedented public scrutiny. Jonathan Freedman concludes the disposal must occur on uplands before a permit decision (fall 1999 at earliest), that the Corps has no jurisdiction over uplands, and that King County bears responsibility for finding the disposal site. Wanda Gentry raises Real Estate Division requirements for a temporary disposal easement and legal description. Siri Nelson asks whether the material is going to upland and when the work occurs. AR numbers AR023758–AR023759.

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