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Review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The Army Engineers have repeatedly indicated that they were on the verge of rendering their decision on the third application. But each of these reports has failed to pan out. Early on, the Corps said that it would not act until the State had finished its part of the process. The Corps seemed to be unsure whether the certificate was in force, after the Pollution Control Hearings Board (the State’s official body for reviewing such certificates) had ruled that it was not. The Corps has a huge mass of materials under consideration, hundreds upon hundreds of documents, including everything submitted to Ecology and much more. The Corps is considering difficult issues of “public need”, the stability of the proposed runway embankment, and issues of Federal water-quality and wildlife standards. The Corps has said in the past that this is the largest sec. 404 proceeding that has come before it to date. It is certainly the largest public works project in our State since the Grand Coulee Dam. RCAA believes that the civilian technicians in the Seattle District Office are drafting possible conditions that might be included in a permit, as a way of gauging whether there is any way to approve the application. This work is separate from the Corps’ necessary evaluation of the “public need” for the runway, and of course writing a draft is not the same as making a decision to issue it. Typically, in a complicated situation, the…
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