So You Want A Port Package? Start Here

Thanks for contacting us.

Why Bother Reading This?

Getting a Port Package is a process. A long process that  will likely take several years. Really. Even if they say ‘yes’, right away. It’s complicated and frustrating and confusing and we know you don’t want to hear that because you’re already upset by the noise. So we’ll have plenty of time to go through all the details.

What we want to emphasize right off the bat the bat is that when you first contact the Port Of Seattle your first response from them may well be: “No”. Or you may sail through the process and then literally the week before the workmen are scheduled to begin, some glitch happens.

Whatever you do? Do not give up. We want you to read this article all the way to the end because we want you to understand that there are people here to help you make the process run more smoothly and assist you if you run into difficulties.

Contacting The Port Of Seattle Noise Program

But since we’re at the beginning, after you finish reading here, click the following link and read the first couple of paragraphs of their explanation:

Airport Noise Programs | Port of Seattle (portseattle.org)

…and then call (206) 787-5393 to get started.

The Two Main Qualifiers

The two most important requirements are:  When your house was built and where your house was built. Your house has to have been built within a certain range of years (usually before 1987) and it has to be within a certain geographic area around Sea-Tac Airport (referred to as the DNL65). Those are the two criteria that cannot be worked around. If you are denied based on other criteria, we may be able to help keep your application moving forward.

Keep Us In The Loop

If you pass the initial screening, your home will be then evaluated. Regardless of how any of these interactions go please keep us in the loop!

If you get a positive initial response, there can be many slip-ups along the way. If you’re within the DNL65 and are denied? We want to get to the bottom of why so we can go to bat for you and try to get you on the list. And even if you are not within the DNL65 we still want to keep in touch because we’re also working at several levels of government to get those barriers knocked down and get thousands more homes modified.

When

The list of properties is complete for the last grant (2018) so you will probably not be looked at until next year. However, that should not influence your decision to call. Do it now. and let us know how it goes asap!

If they give you encouraging news, great. If not, again-again-do not give up hope! Or even if they do and you still have questions (you will), get back to us!

What We Do

Our mission is to advocate for you. This can be a lengthy and confusing process and you will get conflicting answers from all kinds of well-meaning people in the community (including local government, pissed off residents and local ‘activists’) who are not speaking from personal experience. There are a bunch of people who should know better who will even tell you not to pursue a Port Package because they heard from a very reliable source that “it will prevent you from suing the Port later”. This is total nonsense.

Our problem is that if we tell you not to listen to all these people because they don’t know what they’re talking about we come off as sound snippy. So we’ll put it like this:

Do not listen to these people, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Sorry, but this is like talking about climate change. There is only one honest answer and we can’t keep being polite about the spread of false information by anyone, even if it’s totally well-meaning.

So do not give up and whatever you do: PLEASE KEEP US IN THE LOOP! (Have we said that enough times! 😀 ).

Our Goals

We are the only people in the entire region that advocate for homeowners and individuals. We do the research. We track every home that has ever been worked on by the Port Of Seattle, every home that has had problems with their installation and every home that has not had mitigation that we think should be added to the list. And we keep fighting to:

1. Get new people added to the list of homes eligible for mitigation. Because we feel like a whole lot more people should be getting noise mitigation.

2. Get people with damaged Port Package remediation, including replacement of bad products and property damage due to mold. Because there are a whole lot of people who got stuck with poorly installed systems.

The Scoreboard

Our efforts have been fruitful, so there is reason for optimism.

Before we got started two years ago, the Port Of Seattle had not done a single Port Package since 2008. This year they’re doing several dozen. That didn’t happen because they suddenly got religion. It happened because of a lot of hard work and patience.

Before we got started, the Port never published cumulative statistics on flight noise. Now they do. So you can easily see the number, type and noise level of flights over your neighborhood and how it’s getting worse over time..

We are just now at the beginning stages of legislation to modify State law to make it possible for homeowners to gain remediation from the Port Of Seattle if their existing Port Packages run into problems. This notion was simply unthinkable even a year ago. Now, it is something that City and State lawmakers are talking about because enough people have been willing to come on board with us and show how many bad Port Packages the Port Of Seattle initially installed.

So we are making progress on some fronts. You’re just not hearing about it.

We Need You

Which is why we need you. We cannot succeed with your help. And too many people give up because they are told by local officials or other well-meaning people that “nothing can be done” which is simply untrue. It just takes time.

Sorry to gas on. We run into a TON of opposition from all sides and that leads to a lot of pessimism that feeds on itself. But as you can see, there is reason for hope if we work together on this.

Keep us in the loop.