TagThird Runway(1084)

These draft meeting notes from October 27, 2000 document technical negotiations between the Port of Seattle and the Washington Department of Ecology regarding the 401 water quality permit for the Sea-Tac Airport Third Runway project. The meeting covered topics including stormwater management planning, base flow impacts, Tyee Pond buffer requirements, and staffing for permit review. A master list of technical issues was maintained to track which items had been resolved, were pending additional information, or required further discussion.

These are meeting notes from a October 27, 2000 negotiation session between the Port of Seattle and the Washington Department of Ecology regarding the 401 Water Quality Permit for Sea-Tac Airport's Third Runway project. The meeting covered technical issues including stormwater management planning, base flow impacts, and the Tyee Pond buffer, with participants tracking the resolution status of dozens of environmental compliance items. A jointly maintained master list of issues was used to document which technical concerns had been resolved, were pending additional information, or required further discussion before the permit could be issued.

These draft meeting notes from October 27, 2000 document technical negotiations between the Port of Seattle and the Washington State Department of Ecology regarding the 401 Water Quality Permit for Sea-Tac Airport's Third Runway project. The meeting covered key stormwater management topics including detention sizing, base flow impacts, and the Tyee Pond buffer, with participants tracking a master list of technical issues requiring resolution before the permit could be issued. The notes reflect ongoing discussions between agency staff, Port representatives, and engineering consultants to resolve stormwater modeling, hydrology, and environmental compliance questions.

Exhibit 89 (AR 017784-017785). Email chain forwarded by Raymond Hellwig (Ecology) to Ann Kenny on October 26, 2000, containing internal comments by Tom Luster (Ecology) on draft 10/20/2000 meeting notes for the Sea-Tac Airport third runway 401/404 review. Luster raises concerns about: NPDES major modification and stormwater plan for SR-509 interchange; South Access/Tyee Pond spill

This October 2000 email chain between Washington State Department of Ecology staff discusses coordination efforts regarding the Port of Seattle-SeaTac International Airport Agreed Order (A.O.) and Remedial Action Grant (RAG). The team planned a November meeting with Port of Seattle representatives to confirm completed cleanup work, agree on remaining scope, and address grant-related issues. Key action items included transmitting a Responsiveness Summary to the Port, reviewing billing records, and briefing the Ecology 401 Certification team on progress.

A 2000 engineering memorandum from HNTB and Hart Crowser advises the Third Runway Design Team against artificially increasing stormwater infiltration within the proposed runway embankment. The memo warns that enhanced infiltration would raise risks of slope instability, soil liquefaction during earthquakes, and long-term maintenance problems that could not be remedied once the embankment was built. The engineers concluded that these safety and structural risks outweighed any stormwater detention benefits that increased infiltration might provide.

These are internal deliberative notes from a telephone conversation with Ray Hellwig on October 26, 2000 at 4:50 p.m., discussing the need for consistency between the NAMP and SMP programs, concerns about underestimating the difficulty of technical review, and a decision deadline set for the end of January. The notes also address cumulative impacts described as 'reasonably foreseeable,' a South Access Road and Tyee Pond condition related to DOT and subsequent development, a refusal to permit SAR, consultant oversight of mitigation implementation, and contingency mitigation at a multiplied ratio.

In an October 25, 2000 letter to Washington State Department of Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons, the Airport Communities Coalition (representing cities of Burien, Tukwila, Des Moines, Federal Way, Normandy Park, and the Highline School District) protested the removal of senior environmental specialist Tom Luster from the Port of Seattle's third runway 401 water quality permit review. The coalition alleged that political pressure from the Port of Seattle — including secret meetings with the Governor's office and a coordinated public relations campaign — was improperly influencing the regulatory process. The letter demanded Luster's immediate reinstatement, citing his three years of institutional knowledge and commitment to science-based, nonpolitical decision-making on the permit.

In October 2000, Washington State Department of Ecology prepared internal talking points to explain staff changes in the environmental review of the Sea-Tac Airport Third Runway project, including shifting the 401 water quality permit review from Olympia headquarters to the Bellevue regional office and replacing the senior wetlands specialist with an outside consultant. Ecology emphasized that these were routine workforce-management decisions driven by competing project demands, not outside pressure. The agency maintained that its responsibility to ensure the Third Runway met state environmental protection laws — covering stormwater, wetlands, in-stream flow, and clean fill — remained unchanged.

Letter dated October 25, 2000 from Elizabeth Leavitt, Manager of Aviation Environmental Programs, Port of Seattle, to Jonathan Freedman, Regulatory Branch, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Seattle District, submitting a new Joint Aquatic Resources Permit Application (JARPA) for Clean Water Act Section 404 permit, Corps of Engineers Project No. 96-4-02325, for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Master