TagMiller Creek(42)

This draft planning document outlines west sub-area policies near Sea-Tac Airport, addressing noise impact reduction, environmental concerns, and land use transitions. Key provisions include halting mass property acquisition for noise mitigation, installing sanitary sewers near Miller Creek, controlling stormwater runoff from new airport development, and planting shade trees along local waterways. The document also proposes orderly conversion of single-family residential areas to higher-intensity uses, coordinated with the construction of S.R. 509 as a western boundary for redevelopment.

This engineering cross-section diagram from Sea-Tac International Airport illustrates the dramatic 179-foot elevation drop adjacent to the proposed Third Runway, showing how a massive retaining wall and new embankment would be constructed alongside Miller Creek. The exhibit depicts key infrastructure features including a permanent chain-link security fence, rock underdrain, silt fence, inner collection swale, and a minimum 50-foot creek buffer zone designed to protect the existing waterway. The drawing is part of the Miller Creek Instream and Buffer Enhancements project documentation associated with the Third Runway expansion.

This archive documents a long history of water pollution discharged from Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) Airport into nearby waterways, dating back to 1948. It includes Discharge Monitoring Reports filed by the Port of Seattle showing high concentrations of glycol and other chemicals flowing into local stormwater systems and ultimately Puget Sound, as well as historical letters from the 1950s describing fish kills in Miller Creek and Des Moines Creek caused by airport runoff. The records reveal decades of regulatory correspondence between the Port of Seattle and Washington State pollution authorities over inadequate waste disposal practices.

This document assesses the ecological functions of wetlands and aquatic resources in the Miller Creek and related basins near Sea-Tac Airport, evaluating their roles in water quality, flood storage, and wildlife habitat. Wetlands in the Runway Safety Area and Vacca Farm areas are rated across functions such as nutrient trapping, groundwater exchange, and habitat for fish, waterfowl, amphibians, and small mammals. The assessment finds that interconnected wetland complexes like Lake Reba provide high-value flood attenuation and baseflow support for Miller Creek, while farmed wetlands perform at lower functional levels due to sparse vegetation and agricultural runoff.

This document explains the regulatory approval process required for filling wetlands as part of Sea-Tac Airport's third runway expansion, which requires both a federal permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and a state certificate under Section 401. The Port of Seattle filed its third application in October 2000 after two previous attempts failed, facing significant environmental obstacles including contaminated fill material, threats to stream flow and salmon habitat, destruction of nearly 20 acres of wetlands, flooding risks, embankment stability concerns in an earthquake-prone area, and existing pollution levels that already exceed allowable limits. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must also weigh the public need for the project against these environmental harms, raising broader questions about whether the expansion is justified at all.

This document classifies and describes the various wetland types found within the Sea-Tac Airport project area, using both the Cowardin (1979) and Hydrogeomorphic (HGM) classification systems. It identifies forested, scrub-shrub, emergent, aquatic bed, and riverine wetlands across three drainage basins — Miller Creek, Des Moines Creek, and Walker Creek — listing the specific wetland units belonging to each category. The classifications support environmental impact assessment and mitigation planning associated with airport development activities.

This document analyzes the environmental impacts of construction projects at a north airfield area on wetlands and waterways in the Miller Creek Basin. It details how filling approximately 2.75 acres of wetlands and 980 linear feet of Miller Creek will affect water quality, hydrology, fish habitat, wildlife, and plant communities. It also describes a compensatory mitigation plan at the nearby Vacca Farm site, where Miller Creek will be relocated and wetlands restored to offset the project's ecological losses.

This document summarizes the environmental wetland impacts associated with airport expansion projects near Sea-Tac Airport, detailing acreage affected across four creek basins — Miller Creek, Walker Creek, Des Moines Creek, and Green River. It breaks down impacts by wetland vegetation type (forested, shrub, emergent, and open water) and hydrological classification (depressional, riverine, and slope), with total impacts ranging from 4% of the Walker Creek project area to 100% of the Green River area. The tables also distinguish between temporary and permanent wetland impacts as determined by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, covering features such as the Third Runway and Runway Safety Area extensions.

The Airport Communities Coalition filed an emergency motion asking the Washington Supreme Court to block the Port of Seattle from filling wetlands and rerouting Miller Creek in preparation for a third runway at Sea-Tac Airport. The Coalition argued that the Pollution Control Hearings Board's order is legally binding on the Port and the Department of Ecology, and that the Port cannot alter the site's status quo while the appeal is pending. The motion sought an injunction to preserve existing conditions until the court issued a final ruling on whether the project complies with state water quality standards.

This legal brief was filed before Washington State's Pollution Control Hearings Board by community groups challenging a stormwater discharge permit issued to the Port of Seattle for Sea-Tac Airport. The groups argue that Lake Reba, a detention pond on airport property, should be protected as a 'water of the state' and that the permit unlawfully fails to regulate or monitor the airport's industrial stormwater discharges from Lake Reba into Miller Creek. The appellants contend that, unlike other waterways affected by the airport, Lake Reba's discharge point was not even identified as an outfall, leaving it subject to no effluent limits, monitoring, or reporting requirements.