C.A.S.E. meeting -- more about noise

Current usage of Sea-Tac Airport  will be the main topic of the regular monthly meeting of Citizens Against Sea-Tac Expansion (C.A.S.E.) on Wednesday, 2 December.  Stan Shepherd, Sea-Tac's Manager pf Airport Noise Programs, expects to set up a web link at the meeting to bring up & display current runway statistics & other flight information, including "WebTrak" in actual operation.

"WebTrak"is a computer program that shows flight paths in almost real time on any computer connect to the Internet.  The URL for this service is

http://www32.webtrak-lochard.com/WebTrak/sea

Not everyone finds this easy to use, so here is a potential opportunity for learning all about it from an expert.

Mr Shepherd will give also give a presentation on the present state of the Part 150 study for the Airport.  

C.A.S.E. President Brett Fish says, "One most intriguing question is how many aborted third runway landings have taken place since the opening and since they aren't completed 'operations', they seem to disappear from the webtracker. The noise is still there, often worse from low attitude high powered recoveries but doesn't seem to be recorded in DNL or other statistics needed to get at the truth of true impacts to the communities."

C.A.S.E. meetings are held at the Highline School District's administration office (also known as "ERAC"), located at 15675 Ambaum Blvd., S.W., in Burien, from  7 p.m. to 9. p.m.  All are welcome.  Light refreshments provided.



 

More details released on Sea-Tac Part 150 study

More details on the pending Part 150 study at Sea-Tac Airport were released by Port staff member Stan Shepherd at the meeting of the Highline Forum on Thursday, 19 November.  We will have an extended posting on this subject by Tuesday.  

A couple of points stood out from Mr Shepherd's presentation.  (1) The contract with the Port's chosen consultant for the study has not yet been signed, which means that the scope of the study is not yet frozen in stone.  (2) There is still no provision for meaningful public participation, unlike the previous study.  The closest to public participation will be an invitation to local cities to send their land-use planners to the Technical Review Committee.  Otherwise, the role of the public will be to attend presentations & to read hand-outs from the Port & consultant.  

Stuart Creighton Elected President of RCAA

At its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, 12 November, the Board of Directors of the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs elected Stuart C. Creighton as President, in succession to Lawrence J. Corvari, who remains on the Board.

Mr Creighton is a former Councilmember of the City of Normandy Park, & was RCAA's President in the mid-1990s.  Mr Creighton was very active as Normandy Park representative in the Airport Communities Coalition.  He is a retired Boeing executive.

Mr Corvari, before serving as President of RCAA, was co-president, with his wife Candice, of Citizens Against Sea-Tac Expansion.

Home sales leap -- with an exception

The Seattle Times reported this morning (pp. A12 & A13) that home sales in King & Snohomish Counties for October leapt to a new high for the year.   With an exception or two.  The area closest to Sea-Tac Airport showed a decline in sales.  

A Burien real-estate professional is quoted as thinking that maybe buyers were looking for neighborhoods that are "a little more upscale".  More upscale?  Is Skyway "more upscale" than Normandy Park?  May we suggest that perhaps it's the new noise from the third runway that is continuing to depress real-estate sales & values in the Highline area?

== < + >= =

If the link above doesn't work for you, try pasting the following URL into your browser.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2010212918_homesales06.html

Burbank's Statement on Part 161 Denial

AIRPORT AUTHORITY ISSUES STATEMENT ON FAA REJECTION OF PART 161 STUDY APPLICATION FOR FULL CURFEW 

  BURBANK, Calif., November 2, 2009 – Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority President Joyce Streator issued the following statement today upon receipt of correspondence from the Federal Aviation Administration denying the Authority’s Part 161 Study application for a full curfew at Bob Hope Airport:

  “The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority this morning, November 2nd, received from the Federal Aviation Administration a 42-page document that denied the Bob Hope Airport's Part 161 application for a full nighttime curfew.

  “The Airport Commission has not yet had the time to study the details of the FAA's document and will do so in the next two weeks. The Commission is deeply disappointed in the denial of its application, and renewed its commitment to seeking meaningful nighttime noise relief.

  “The Airport invested in excess of $7 million over the past nine years in research, analysis, and public comment, as well as innumerable staff hours, to create the application. We are disappointed, but we haven't given up the fight."

-30-

FAA Turns Down Burbank's Night-Time Curfew

On 30 October, the Federal Aviation Administration denied the application of Burbank Airport (Bob Hope Airport) for permission to impose a mandatory night-time curfew.  Bob Hope Airport, known as BUR in aviation lingo, is operated by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority (Southern California).  A voluntary curfew has been in place for many years, but the Airport Authority sought to make it mandatory.

The Part 161 study goes back to 2000. The final application was submitted in February 2009, & was accepted as complete by the FAA in June. A 42-page decision was issued by an Acting Associate Administrator for Airports, Ms Catherine M. Lang, on 30 October.  Ms Lang determined that the application only met two of the six requirements laid down by Congress.

RCAA has the full decision in pdf format, & will forward it to any interested person.

No word of reaction from the Airport Authority.  More on this as more information becomes available.

Date for second-runway work uncertain

According to Elizabth Leavitt, Director, Aviation Planning and Environmental Programs, Sea-Tac Airport, "there is no date for a presentation to Commission on the rehabilitation of Runway 16C/34C   ... the project is still in its infancy and does not have a defined scope or project definition".  Our understanding is that no money has been appropriated by the Commission for this work, & therefore the project could not go forward without Commission approval.  

Whether Port staff plan to prepare an environmental impact statement for the project is equally unclear.

Given that a closure of the second, or center, runway would almost certainly result in the FAA once again using the third runway full tilt, with attendant increases in noise, it would seem mandatory to prepare an EIS, but who knows?