TagTruth in Aviation(13)

This Summer 2000 newsletter from the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs covers legal and environmental battles surrounding Sea-Tac Airport's expansion, including a federal lawsuit over Endangered Species Act violations and disputes over wetland-filling permits. It also examines the debate over whether changing flight corridors can reduce noise impacts on surrounding communities, detailing how the Port Commission rejected a Part 150 study advisory committee's recommendations to disperse departure routes. The newsletter concludes that flight corridor changes alone cannot solve the noise problem and calls for the Port and FAA to abandon expansion plans and explore new airport sites.

This Winter 2000 newsletter from the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs covers community opposition to Sea-Tac Airport's third runway expansion, including a packed public hearing on wetlands destruction, debates over proposed changes to flight corridors to reduce noise impacts, and a major study finding that retrofitting Highline School District classrooms to acceptable noise levels would cost $178 million — far exceeding the Port of Seattle's $50 million mitigation budget. The newsletter highlights growing tensions between the Port, local residents, and government agencies over the environmental, financial, and quality-of-life impacts of airport expansion.

This 1999 newsletter from the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs covers major controversies surrounding Sea-Tac Airport's proposed third runway, including a 31% cost jump bringing construction estimates to $773 million, unresolved wetlands permits requiring the filling of 18+ acres of wetlands and 3,000 linear feet of streams, and disputes over water rights and environmental impacts on local creeks. The newsletter also reports on related issues including a rejected conveyor-belt proposal to transport runway fill, a $500,000 state-funded aquifer study, and separate local disputes over float planes on Seattle's waterfront and helicopter leases at Boeing Field.