TagJC Harris(6)

SeaTacNoise.Info has received a grant from 4Culture, King County's cultural funding agency, to help complete a documentary film titled 'Under The Flight Path: A Community History of Sea-Tac Airport.' The film aims to tell the largely untold story of communities living near Sea-Tac Airport from its founding in 1949 to the present, drawing on a library of over 300,000 historical documents. Unlike existing histories focused on the aviation industry's successes, the documentary seeks to provide a balanced perspective for residents and stakeholders as the airport's growth continues to accelerate.

This document contains correspondence related to Sea-Tac Airport noise and flight operations concerns, including a legal analysis explaining why capping flights would face significant obstacles under the U.S. Commerce Clause and FAA regulations, along with alternative approaches such as Part 161 Studies and state emissions legislation. It also includes a letter from the cities of Burien and Des Moines outlining conditions for rejoining the Sea-Tac Airport Round Table (StART), demanding meeting recordings, reversal of a $10 million design expenditure made without proper environmental review, and responses to outstanding written concerns that had gone unanswered by the Port of Seattle.

In a March 2019 letter to Washington State Representative Tina Orwall, activist JC Harris outlines widespread problems with Port of Seattle noise-insulation packages installed in homes near Sea-Tac Airport, including failing windows, mold growth, and costly repairs affecting over 160 documented households. Harris urges Orwall to support changes to state law (RCW 53.54.030) that would allow homeowners to receive ongoing maintenance funding rather than a single one-time payment, arguing the current system unfairly benefits the Port and airlines at residents' expense. The letter also notes that affected cities such as Des Moines, SeaTac, and Burien have declined to engage on the issue, leaving residents frustrated and skeptical that any meaningful relief is possible.

A June 2, 2017 edition of the Federal Way Mirror features letters to the editor debating airplane noise and airport policy in the Federal Way, Washington area. Residents express frustration over increasing flight noise, with one writer describing it as a 'continual assault' on residents' ears, while another argues that Federal Way should advocate for a second regional airport at Everett's Paine Field rather than expanding Sea-Tac's third runway. The letters reflect ongoing community concern about the quality-of-life impacts of growing air traffic over South Sound neighborhoods.

Residents of Federal Way, Washington wrote letters to their local mirror newspaper in June 2017 expressing frustration over increasing airplane noise from Sea-Tac Airport, citing quadrupled noise and emission impacts, the need to wear earplugs indoors and outdoors, and calling for a second regional airport at Everett's Payne Field. Former Federal Way City Council member Linda Kochmar, drawing on her decade of experience with the Airport Communities Coalition, urged South Sound mayors to pressure the state legislature and congressional delegation to act. The letters were written in response to a columnist who had minimized residents' concerns, and collectively call for greater media and government attention to the environmental and quality-of-life impacts of the FAA's 2017 Long Range Plan for expanded flight operations.