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Setback for new runway
Port drops application for wetlands permit
Friday, September 29, 2000
By JACK HOPKINS
The Port of Seattle suffered another setback yesterday in its plan to build a controversial third runway at Sea-Tac Airport when the state Department of Ecology decided the proposal does not adequately address environmental concerns.
The port agreed to withdraw its application for a wetlands permit yesterday -- one day before the state agency was expected to reject the application.
At the time, Port of Seattle commissioners predicted it would cost $217 million to build the runway. Since then, estimates have soared to $773 million, and the runway is still being challenged in federal court.
Some construction will be allowed to continue, despite yesterday's decision.
How long the decision will delay completion of the project remains the subject of intense debate between those who support the runway and those who oppose it.
Al Furney, vice president of the Regional Council on Airport Affairs, said yesterday's decision could be "a devastating blow to the project."
"My guess is that it means a three-year delay for the port," said Furney, whose group has bitterly fought expansion at Sea-Tac Airport.
"There will have to be a whole new series of public hearings on the project, and there will be a requirement for a new environmental impact statement."
Port officials, however, aren't convinced that they will be required to hold more hearings or conduct a new environmental study.
The Department of Ecology planned to reject the permit because it wasn't satisfied with the port's plans for handling storm water runoff at the airport.
The agency was also concerned about several other aspects of the proposal, including its effect on stream flow in nearby Miller, Walker and Des Moines creeks.
The Department of Ecology expects the port to quickly file a new application for a wetlands permit, and the state agency emphasized that its decision to reject the application was not intended to kill the third runway.
"We think the port is on the right path conceptually," said Curt Hart, a DOE spokesman.
"There needs to be more work done (on the port's plans), but there are no fatal flaws here."
But the Airport Communities Coalition, which has opposed the third runway in and out of court, says the port may not be able to move as quickly as it thinks.
"I'm sure they think they can get approval in 60 days, but it doesn't work that way," said Bob Sheckler, the group's president.
"Submitting a new application just starts the clock going again," he said. "It can be a very lengthy process."
If third runway opponents are right, completion could be pushed back until sometime in 2009.
If the port is right, the work could still be finished in late 2006.
The DOE planned to reject the application because the port simply didn't get its engineering work done on time and failed to adequately address some of the state's questions, Hart said.
"The real hang-up is that they didn't get their storm water management plan to King County until this month," Hart said.
"The King County review, which we concur with, was that it needed more work," he added. "It's a huge project and will affect our region for decades.
"Ecology has to be sure it is not going to degrade the water quality."
Hart said the issue could be resolved by mid-December.
Among other things, the port will be required to show that it has a source of water to augment the flows in Des Moines, Miller and Walker creeks during the hot summer months when stream flow is naturally low, Hart said.
Port officials said they are confident they can address all of DOE's concerns. And they said they weren't completely surprised by DOE's reluctance to grant the wetlands permit.
"We probably should not have been surprised," Parker said. "They had a lot of questions. And we ran out of time to address them.
"We had a fairly good idea this (withdrawal) would be a possibility. I wouldn't want to imply they dropped a bomb on us the day before the deadline," he said.
Port staffers are working on a two-month timetable to address DOE's concerns, Parker said.
"Our people will be right with Ecology and get them the answers they need."
But Furney said he doesn't think the port's setback can be resolved that easily.
"My basic reaction is that the talk about a two-month delay is a political spin on fatal flaws that have been determined by scientific experts who have provided input on behalf of the local communities opposing the third runway project," Furney said.
The port still hasn't addressed developing problems with the proposal, including the recent listing of salmon under the endangered species act, he said.
"That is an issue the port never considered when it initially proposed this project."
Sheckler hailed the DOE for its decision not to issue a permit to the port.
"We are ecstatic," he said. "We were always confident the Department of Ecology would make the proper decision. But there was a lot of political pressure on the department and that could have influenced them to go a different direction. I applaud them.
"The environment won this time around," Sheckler said.
State Sen. Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac, responded to the DOE decision by saying that she would introduce a bill in the 2001 legislative session to create a process for finding a place to build a new airport to take on some of Sea-Tac's heavy air traffic load.
"Now is the time to move forward with a new solution -- a new airport," she said in a written statement issued last night. "Because of the serious impacts on salmon and wetlands, there is no way the Port of Seattle can justify the proposed third runway."
The legislation would create and finance an independent commission to study air transportation needs and establish a process to choose a site for a new regional airport to serve the entire state.
AUGUST 1996: Despite heated opposition in several South King County communities, the commissioners approve the plan.
JULY 1997: The Federal Aviation Administration allows the third runway to proceed, and trucks began hauling fill to the site.
JULY 1998: In one of the most serious setbacks for runway opponents, a King County Superior Court judge dismisses challenges to the plan's legality and environmental soundness.
SEPTEMBER 1998: After discovering new wetlands on some of the property acquired from landowners, the port halts construction. Work later resumes.
MAY 25, 2000: Local governments opposed to the runway maintain that the project would endanger salmon runs.
SEPT. 28, 2000: The state Department of Ecology decides the port's proposal for a wetlands permit does not adequately address environmental concerns. The port agrees to withdraw its application, which can be resubmitted.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Yesterday's development was the latest in a long line of delays, changes and court battles over the third runway since it was first conceived eight years ago to ease congestion.
"We think we can keep on plodding along with the Department of Ecology and be done in 60 days," said Bob Parker, a port spokesman. "It would not mean a delay of three years."
Oversize dump trucks sit quietly at the end of the day of work yesterday on the north end of the third runway being built at Sea-Tac Airport. It's not known how yesterday's decision on the port's withdrawal of a wetlands permit application will delay completion of the runway, a project postponed several times already.
Mike Urban/P-I Chronology
NOVEMBER 1992: Port of Seattle commissioners authorize work to begin on an updated master plan for Sea-Tac Airport, a move that would lead to a third-runway proposal.
P-I reporter Jack Hopkins can be reached at 206-870-7851 or jackhopkins@seattle-pi.com
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