Tagletter(154)

A January 28, 1993 letter from James T. Murphy of the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs (RCAA) to the Transportation Policy and Executive Board, presenting independent consultant research on air capacity options for the Puget Sound region. The letter notes that RCAA had delivered three volumes of material over three weeks, with a final compilation to follow, aimed at helping the Board make informed decisions about managing airport capacity. The RCAA, backed by dozens of community organizations and cities including Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park, and Tukwila, framed its work as an alternative voice on Sea-Tac Airport expansion and noise policy.

A January 13, 1993 memo from Janet O'Donnell to Jim Murphy, President of the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs (RCAA), requests $150.00 to obtain a bulk mail postal permit — $75.00 for the annual fee and $75.00 for the setup fee — to support distribution of materials related to Sea-Tac Airport noise issues. The memo outlines the process for obtaining the permit through the Seattle Post Office and coordinating with a volunteer to finalize mailing logistics. The document is endorsed by a broad coalition of community organizations, city governments, and civic groups opposed to Sea-Tac Airport expansion and aircraft noise.

A September 1992 internal memo from Doug Graves and Len Oebser to Rick Aramburu summarizes a site visit to the Toledo-Winlock area of Washington State as a potential location for a new replacement airport. The site was praised for its large size, proximity to the I-5 freeway midway between Seattle and Portland, access to Burlington Northern rail lines, and its sparsely populated surroundings, which would minimize noise and environmental impacts. However, drawbacks noted included its distance from major population centers such as Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, and Portland, which would require some form of mass rapid transit to serve the airport effectively.

In this 1992 letter, acoustics expert James D. Chalupník explains to attorney Richard Aramburu how aircraft noise near Seattle's Sea-Tac Airport is measured and rated, focusing on the appropriateness of the Ldn metric and the data used in the FAA's Integrated Noise Model (INM). He outlines the key physical properties of noise—intensity, frequency distribution, and fluctuation over time—and describes how various weighting schemes, particularly the A-weighting (dBA) scale, are used to approximate human perception of loudness and annoyance. The letter also notes the limitations of simpler metrics and introduces more sophisticated rating methods such as Stevens' Loudness Level and Perceived Noise Level for evaluating aircraft noise.

In July 1984, homeowners on 26th Ave. South near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport wrote to Port of Seattle Commissioners supporting the acquisition of their properties under the Noise Remedy program, citing increasing aircraft noise, growing industrial traffic hazards, and uncertainty that had delayed home maintenance. A separate letter from the Port's Director of Aviation to an airline captain acknowledged that non-compliance with existing noise abatement procedures — such as aircraft flying lower or turning sooner than prescribed — was a significant community concern, and noted that the Port was developing computer software using FAA radar data to automatically detect and report such violations.

In a June 22, 1984 letter to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, United Airlines Vice President Captain M. E. Volz requested information about the airport's noise-sensitive areas and any formal or informal noise abatement procedures in place. The airline was conducting a survey of all airports it served in order to build a computer database of noise procedures accessible to pilots at any United Airlines terminal. United Airlines asked Sea-Tac to provide copies or descriptions of its noise procedures and to send future updates to the Flight Safety Department in Chicago.

In January 1984, the Port of Seattle sent workshop attendees an update on proposed noise remedy programs for Jackson International Airport (Sea-Tac), outlining three options: land acquisition, purchase assurance, and sound insulation. Following public feedback that revealed inaccuracies in the original boundary maps, the Port's consultant revised the preliminary geographic boundaries to more accurately reflect noise levels from the Sea-Tac Noise Exposure Update Study. The accompanying modifications document details specific additions and deletions to affected areas surrounding the airport for each of the three programs.