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Friday, August 20, 2004
You know that third runway? Sea-Tac's really getting it
The eight-year legal battle over a $1.1 billion third runway at Sea-Tac Airport is over.
The Airport Communities Coalition, made up of a group of local governments in southern King County, has spent millions of dollars to fight the runway in court. But yesterday the group said the fight is done and so are its two remaining legal challenges to the runway.
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Now the coalition wants to work with its longtime foe, the Port of Seattle, which operates the airport.
In the end, the port will still get its runway, but the longtime opponents insist that the port will build it with the protections they wanted.
"The port's getting the third runway, but these are the things we were fighting for all along," said Bob Sheckler, Des Moines mayor and coalition chairman.
The port, on the other hand, can free itself from the legal actions that have tied the runway up for nearly a decade and were threatening to tie it up even longer.
"It signals a changed relationship between the port and those communities around the airport," said Port Commission Chairwoman Paige Miller. "It's as good a day as I've had in a long time."
The state Supreme Court in May had largely cleared the way for delayed runway construction to resume.
Opponents say they now want to work with the port on matters of common interest, such as extension of state Route 509 and redevelopments of port properties that could improve the local tax base.
The port has been planning and building parts of the runway since 1987, saying the new facility will reduce weather delays for flights that now must land single-file on one runway when sight distances are limited.
The coalition, which comprises Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Normandy Park, Tukwila and the Highline School District, began fighting the runway in the 1990s, saying it wasn't needed and would damage its surrounding environment. In 1996, the day after the port committed to build the runway, the coalition sued.
The most recent legal challenges centered on environmental conditions that the port would have to meet. The port didn't meet state environmental conditions in an initial permit application but a second application ended up before a state hearings board before it was settled by the high court last May.
The port resumed construction on the runway shortly after the May ruling, bringing in trucks to begin importing and repositioning 9.5 million cubic yards of fill dirt to complete the an embankment. Altogether, another 12 million cubic yards will be brought in. The port expects to complete the runway by 2008.
Just days after the state Supreme Court ruling, the coalition filed another appeal of the permit to the hearings board, contending some fill dirt was contaminated.
But "we couldn't find a smoking gun," Sheckler said of the latest appeal, and several coalition members weren't comfortable continuing the new action. In addition, Sheckler said, the Supreme Court decision largely resolved issues raised in a separate coalition lawsuit that was on appeal in federal court. That suit has also been dropped.
"We decided to concentrate on the win we did get" at the Supreme Court, which directed the state to make sure fill is adequately tested for contaminants and to recalculate contamination limits for metals in the fill.
At the same time, the cities have non-runway issues to work out with the port. Burien wants to see new development on a port-owned parcel near the airport's north end. . And Des Moines has similar development desires for a port-owned parcel on South 216th Street and wants to limit removal of dirt from that parcel for the runway.
In a recent letter to Des Moines, Miller said the port and the city must "work together in a cooperative way" regarding the site.
"At a minimum, we would expect Des Moines to stop all of its current litigation or permit appeals against the third runway, not support such litigation financially and not continue to fund the (coalition)."
Sheckler said the city didn't cave in to pressure. The coalition remains in existence. He said the cities' attitude about the port now is "let's go ahead and talk to them" about the land issues.
The political shift wasn't a complete surprise to some people who live near the airport. Some Des Moines residents wanted to battle the third runway to the very end, but said the fight has become futile.
"It was a good fight, and it was worth fighting," said Stephen Hueston, who grew up in a house that is just west of Sea-Tac's flight path.
"But we've probably spent all the money that it's valuable to spend on it," said his mother, Jean Hueston, a local political activist who moved into her home in 1954, long before there was jet-plane noise to deal with.
She blames the port, not her local city council, for the millions that south county cities have thrown into a collective legal battle. "I'm not mad at the people spending it," she said.
Still, other residents here, in the city sometimes viewed as spearheading the coalition effort, think the battle was futile from the beginning.
"It's about time they pulled out," said Dan Willman, who was rearranging a tree in his yard yesterday as an Alaska Airline jet came in for a landing almost directly overhead. "This was a useless fight.
"Now they (the Des Moines City Council) are having these town meetings to talk about raising taxes for a budget shortfall in the city."
Lori Popejoy said she's lived in the south end her entire life -- 45 years -- and so expected the noise when she bought her home here 5 1/2 years ago.
"There are so many other things they could have spent the money on, so many social programs and educational programs -- the roads even," she said.
Barry Sellers said he often has to crank up the volume on his television set at night to drown out the landing planes. But he said he is not in favor of continuing to fight the runway's construction.
LONG FIGHT OVER THIRD RUNWAY
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, estimated to cost $217 million.
AUGUST 1996: Despite heated opposition in several South King County communities, port commissioners approve the third-runway plan. New estimated cost: $405 million.
JULY 1997: The Federal Aviation Administration allows the third runway to proceed, and trucks begin hauling fill to the site.
JULY 1998: In a serious setback 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.
SEPTEMBER 2000: The state Department of Ecology decides the port's proposal for a wetlands permit does not adequately address environmental concerns.
AUGUST 2001: The Department of Ecology issues a water-quality certificate for the project, one of two key permits needed. It calls the permit requirements some of the most stringent it has issued, but opponents appeal the permit to a state hearings board, saying the runway will contaminate water and that a retaining wall creates an earthquake hazard.
DECEMBER 2001: In a major blow to the port, the state Pollution Control Hearings Board shelves a water-quality certificate needed before construction can begin.
AUGUST 2002: The hearings board, after months of hearings and study, approves a water-quality certificate but adds a host of new conditions on the port.
SEPTEMBER 2002: The port and the state Department of Ecology appeal the board's decision. Both say the conditions imposed by the board are too strict.
JUNE 2003: An updated port estimate puts the runway price tag at between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion, depending on when construction begins - a 50-percent-plus increase. The port blames changing environmental standards, changes in design, inflation and opponents' litigation.
MAY 2004: The state Supreme Court overturns several conditions of the water-quality certificate that had stalled construction.
YESTERDAY: Runway opponents, after months of quiet negotiations, announce they're dropping remaining lawsuits against the runway. They said they'd won the environmental protections they'd hoped for, though.
More headlines and info from Capitol Hill, Des Moines, Federal Way, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Tukwila.
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