TagAirport Communities Coalition(268)

A March 15, 2001 laboratory report from Columbia Analytical Services sent to John Strand of the Airport Communities Coalition, summarizing water quality test results from samples submitted on February 28, 2001. The report, assigned service request number K2101434, confirms all analyses were conducted under the laboratory's quality assurance program. It includes reference sheets defining technical acronyms and data qualifiers used in interpreting inorganic, metals, and organic test results.

Following the Nisqually earthquake of February 28, 2001, GeoSyntec Consultants wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Washington State Department of Ecology raising serious concerns about the seismic safety of the proposed Third Runway expansion at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The letter highlighted that the earthquake caused damage to mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls and widespread liquefaction despite being only a moderate event, reinforcing earlier warnings about flaws in the project's seismic design criteria and ground motion analysis. GeoSyntec argued that the airport's role as a regional emergency lifeline demands higher safety standards than those applied to ordinary residential structures.

Two 2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer articles raise safety and environmental concerns about SeaTac Airport's proposed third runway. The first warns that a planned 15-story, 1,450-foot retaining wall built on weak, earthquake-prone soils could catastrophically fail in a seismic event, threatening wetlands and salmon-bearing streams. The second reveals that state officials approved a key water-quality permit for the runway without following their own attorney's advice to secure a water right, prompting the Airport Communities Coalition to appeal the permit and allege political pressure was driving the project forward.

A March 2001 letter from Water Resources Consulting LLC to the Washington State Department of Ecology raises concerns about a proposed NPDES permit modification for SeaTac Airport, arguing that the draft permit gives the Port of Seattle a 'blank check' to discharge pollutants at unspecified locations into unnamed water bodies without adequate public oversight. The letter also criticizes the airport's stormwater monitoring reports for obscuring potential water quality violations by mishandling hardness data used to evaluate dissolved metals concentrations. The author urges the Department of Ecology to require specific discharge locations and proper concurrent hardness reporting before issuing the modified permit.

A March 9, 2001 letter from law firm Helsell Fetterman, representing the Airport Communities Coalition (cities of Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Normandy Park, Tukwila, and the Highline School District), demands that Washington State Department of Ecology enforce a 1999 Agreed Order requiring the Port of Seattle to complete groundwater contamination studies at Sea-Tac Airport. The coalition argues that the Port has failed to finish required groundwater flow and contaminant transport studies — originally due December 1999 — and that Ecology cannot legally certify the third runway project under the Clean Water Act without this data. The letter also requests a State Auditor review of how the Port spent grant money provided by Ecology to fund those studies.

A March 8, 2001 laboratory report from Columbia Analytical Services sent to John Strand of the Airport Communities Coalition in Richland, WA, presents water quality monitoring results (project 00-101B) from samples submitted on February 20, 2001. The report includes standard data qualifiers and acronym definitions used to interpret inorganic, metals, and organic analytical results. All analyses were conducted under the laboratory's quality assurance program.

In March 2001, GeoSyntec Consultants submitted a correction to a technical review letter concerning the Third Runway Project at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, clarifying that the seismic stability analysis used by Hart Crowser may seriously overestimate—not underestimate—the wall's ability to withstand earthquake loads. The firm argued that analyzing only the failure surface with the lowest static safety factor, rather than independently searching for the critical seismic failure surface, is an incorrect methodology. GeoSyntec recommended a proper pseudo-static slope stability analysis to ensure adequate ground improvement measures are applied in the right areas.

A February 2001 letter from Azous Environmental Sciences, submitted on behalf of the Airport Communities Coalition, critiques the Port of Seattle's environmental mitigation plan for the proposed third runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The letter argues that key analyses of wetland functions, permanent and temporary wetland area losses, and cumulative environmental impacts are missing or scientifically unsupported in the Port's December 2000 documents. The author concludes that federal and state agencies lack sufficient information to determine whether the project complies with the Clean Water Act or whether the proposed mitigation adequately offsets the project's adverse impacts on wetlands, streams, and fisheries.

A water resources expert hired by the Airport Communities Coalition reviewed the Port of Seattle's stormwater management plan for Sea-Tac Airport expansion and found serious water quality concerns. The review concluded that the plan would harm surrounding streams and aquifers, that existing pollution controls were already failing to meet Washington State water quality standards, and that the proposed measures offered no reasonable assurance of future compliance. The expert recommended denial of both the Clean Water Act Section 401 certification and the Section 404 permit approval.

In February 2001, engineering firm GeoSyntec Consultants submitted a technical review letter on behalf of the Airport Communities Coalition, raising serious concerns about the proposed Third Runway expansion at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The review identified significant deficiencies in the geotechnical investigation and analysis supporting construction of the embankment fill and West MSE Wall, including insufficient soil strength data and inadequate seismic safety assessments. GeoSyntec warned that the proposed design — which would result in the world's tallest MSE wall built over weak, potentially unstable soils in a seismically active region — could fail under earthquake conditions, threatening both airport operations and nearby natural resources.