TagThird Runway(158)

This document constitutes the comments of the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs (RCAA) in response to your request for written comments for your scoping process on the "Sea Tac Master Plan Update, including a third runway." The RCAA is a coalition of various citizen groups, municipal governments and individuals who have a long-standing interest in airport issues and has submitted extensive comments, professional reports and testimony on behalf of our members and member groups in various forums on this subject. This document will also constitute the individual comments of the various participants in the RCAA coalition, though individual members may submit separate comments. In addition to the comments provided herein, we incorporate by reference previous our comments on the related Puget Sound Air Transportation Committee Flight Plan Environmental Impact Statement (hereinafter referred to as the Flightplan E.I.S.) and testimony and presentations to the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) during their consideration of the Flightplan E.I.S. We also reviewed the comment submitted by the PSRC asking that all issues identified in the Flightplan Final E.I.S. as "items be covered in the site specific E.I.S" be covered. We concur and incorporate their comment by reference. Rather than repeat all these instances, we ask that each and every instance in the Flightplan E.I.S.--whether in that instance was in the body of the document or response to public comment--was deferred to the "site specific" or a later E.I.S. must be included in this Environmental Impact Statement. In our comments we will repeatedly use certain…

Prepared under a grant from the State of Washingon by: Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. Dallas, Texas Raytheon Infrastruction Services, Inc. Denver and Philadelphia APPENDIX A EQUITY ISSUES AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS A.01 - INTRODUCTION Equity issues related to the geographic distribution of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's benefits and costs underpin the requirement for socioeconomic impact mitigation. Although a source of contention, it is arguable that socioeconomic benefits such as increased economic activity (jobs, income, and output) and social/cultural events (family visits, traveling performance companies and ease of recreational travel) generated by commercial aviation services taking place at Sea-Tac International Airport exceed the Airport's socioeconomic costs (noise, traffic congestion, a degraded environment for human habitat, adversely affected educational and social services, and a reduced tax base). However, the benefits are distributed over western Washington and the Puget Sound Region while the costs are localized in a small number of communities immediately surrounding the Airport. Consequently, there is a need for mitigation that redirects some of the Airport's benefits back to the communities that disproportionately bear its costs. Appendix A looks at the geographic area adversely affected by Sea-Tac International Airport's impacts and compares it to the places of origin of persons initiating commercial air service travel at Sea-Tac International Airport. It also analyses the Airport's economic benefits and how they affect the five impacted communities that are the focus of this study. The data base for the origin of enplaning passengers at Sea-Tac International Airport comes from a 1991 Origin/ Destination (O/D)…

The Port of Seattle is pleased to submit this Section 404 Application to place fill material into waters of the United States at Seattle Tacoma International Airport associated with the Master Plan Update improvements, as well as associated backup information. 1. Background The Port Commission's approval of the Master Plan Update in August 1996 was the culmination of nearly ten years of regional process regarding the need for additional airport capacity in the Puget Sound Region. It is the result of significant technical and environmental analyses; a comprehensive public information and involvement program; and extensive review of the airport capacity issue by airlines, other Airport users, citizens, and local and regional policy makers. A 39-member panel with representatives from cities and counties throughout the Region, aviatiOn industry experts, citizens, and the State - known as the Puget Sound Air Transportation Committee (PSATC) - was assembled and conducted the three-year long Flight Plan Study. The purpose of the Flight Plan was to develop a regional solution that would meet the Region's commerCial air travel needs to the year 2020 and beyond. The PSA TC conducted a thorough review of a wide range of options, including a replacement airport, supplemental airports, new navigational technologies, demand management, and high speed rail. The PSATC, Port and PSRC prepared and issued for public review and comment a report examining the potential environmental impacts of the studied alternatives. Following its deliberations, the PSATC recommended a multiple airport system that includes a new air carrier runway at…

Subject: Maury Island Barging and Pier Comments relevant to Sea-Tac Third Runway 404 Permit Application 1996-4-02325 Enclosed you will find comments submitted to the Department of Development and Environmental Services regarding the new pier and barging related to the mining of ASARCO contaminated Maury Island. It's a potential source of fill for the Sea-Tac Third runway. It also has many of the same environmental issues since runway and construction pollution empty into the Puget Sound via the creeks and the sewer outfall by Des Moines creek. The week of November 18 Seattle Post-lntelligencer (PI) series titled "Our Troubled Sound" further substantiated my attached comments regarding the existing taxies, declining marine life, and the inability to wash taxies out with the tide due to deep areas just north of Maury Island. It provided information on a tanker with 13.5 million gallons of crude that travels to Tacoma whose path would intersect with the barge path. There is an obvious risk of collision considering there would be 8 barge crossings per day cutting across the path used by the tanker as well as other large ships going to Tacoma. The PI series showed graphs of declining fish populations that looked similar to the Southern Puget Sound whale population decline. The marine life declined at the same time that there was a dramatic increase in de-icer use as well as a shift to new types of de-icers as a result in a change in FAA protocols. The corresponding increase in the new propylene…