Port Commission DOES hear from public

The meeting of the Port Commission on Tuesday, 23 March, indeed did hear from the public on the subject of the Part 150 noise study now underway for Sea-Tac Airport.  Our post on the 19th reflected uncertainty on this point.   As part of its regular business meeting the Commission had scheduled a staff briefing on the study, but no action was contemplated.   Nonetheless, a small group of interested members of the public, as well as local elected officials, were on hand.  

The staff presentation was held to a minimum.  Commissioners had available print versions of the extensive report on the 24 February 2010 workshop.  It was not clear whether they had found time to peruse it, & there was minimal discussion between the Commission & staff.

The bulk of the comments seemed to deal with issues that the study team had not come to grips with.  

        *  For example, Pastor Jon Cortese, Burien Free Methodist Church, pointed out that many churches are subject to overflight noise, yet the study team was not suggesting anything that dealt with their problems.  

         *  Clarke Brant, Normandy Park Councilmember, responding to a comment from the Airport's noise-program manager, Stan Shepherd, that a night-time curfew was outside the scope of the study, noted that most developed countries do not allow night-time operations at metropolitan airports.  He called upon the Commission to advocate changes in Federal law to return control of night-time flights to local authorities.  

          *  Shawn McEvoy, Councilmember from Normandy Park (& former mayor), urged the Commission to fund mitigation outside the 65 DNL contour.  Mr McEvoy also spoke to the need for the study to have a longer planning horizon (at least 10 years), the need to define noise from the third runway with care, & the need to examine compliance with existing procedures.

We will carry on this discussion in later posts.

 

Next Part 150 workshop -- 9 June

The next public workshop in Sea-Tac Airport's Part 150 noise study has been scheduled for 6.30 p.m., Wednesday, 9 June, at Cedarhurst Elementary School in Burien, according to an announcement made at the meeting of the Port Commission on 23 March.   An agenda for the workshop has not been released at this time.

Cedarhurst Elementary School is located at 611 So. 132nd, Burien, 98168.   It is one of the Highline schools that has been rebuilt to reduce overflight noise in the classrooms, under the terms of the 2002 agreement between the School District, the Port District, & the FAA.  (More details about the work at Cedarhurst will be found on the School District's website at http://www.hsd401.org/ourdistrict/construction/cedarhurst.html )

 

Port Commission may hear from the public

Public comment on the pending Part 150 study may be allowed -- or perhaps not -- at the meeting of the Seattle Port Commission on Tuesday, 23 March, at The Cove in Normandy Park.  A staff briefing on the study is shown on the agenda as Item 7 a.   Under the Commission's rules of procedure, "The Commission does not generally take public testimony for non-action agenda items such as "Staff Briefings," but may do so at the discretion of the Commission Chair".   We have not seen anything that officially says that Commission President Bill Bryant will allow public comment -- if it is allowed, commenters must sign up before the presentation begins.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 12 noon, with Item 7 a noted as beginning at 1 p.m. (suggesting that whoever writes these agendas is expecting unusual public interest in this item).

Acoustics at The Cove are lousy -- fine for dance bands but not for public meetings.  Perhaps Port staff will provide extra microphones & a better sound system -- we'll ask.

Report on Part 150 workshop, 24 Feb.

An extensive report on the Part 150 workshop held on 24 February has been posted on the special Part 150 website.   For those who were unable to attend on the 24th, this report will provide some of the flavor.  The over-all summary prepared by the consultants suffers from a certain amount of 'spin' (who's surprised?), but the summaries from the 15 break-out sessions are closer to the reality.  The actual worksheets prepared by the 15 facilitators are even closer to the reality, while the hand-written comments submitted by a few participants deserve extra attention.

Readers who attended the workshop & are now thinking about attending the Port Commission's meeting on the 23rd in order to comment (see next posting) may want to refresh their memories as to what was said a month ago.

The report is a whopper -- over 6 megabytes, & all in one file.  As RCAA suggested to the consultants a month ago, it's better to do these big "posts" in segments, so that the user can download (more quickly) just what he or she is interested in.

Sea-Tac Noise complaints continue

For the six months from September 2009 through February 2010, the Sea-Tac noise hotline recorded noise complaints from more than 300 different households, according to a log of complaints released to RCAA by the Airport yesterday.   Calls came in from more than 50 different ZIP codes, 25 different cities, & from all four Western Washington area codes.

With multiple calls from the same household NOT included, here is a month-by-month breakdown:

September 2009        99

October 2009            64

November 2009         29

December 2009         22

January 2010            51

February 2010          44

It is striking that noise impacts are felt & reported in places far, far removed from the very small area defined by the 65 DNL maps -- Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kirkland, & even Sumner, to mention a few.   

The number of complaints is noteworthy, also, because nothing ever seems to happen at the Airport as the result of citizens complaining to the hotline's voice-mail system, so there seems to be little purpose to making the call.   Yet the complaints continue.  

RCAA has urged the Part 150 study team to take a hard look at the reports of commercial jets overhead in places where no jets should be heard, if established flight procedures are being followed.  Such flights may be part of the reason for noise so far from the Airport.   Clearly, however, the 300-plus complaints point to a severe noise problem from routine operations.   Will the Part 150 study team pay attention to these data?  Will the Port Commission require the study team to propose changes that will bring real relief to the thousands of people living under too-much-noise, but not within the 65 DNL line?

Spring clean-up In Miller/Walker Creek

Miller/Walker Creek Stewardship Update: Spring Stewardship Sign Up

It’s time to get out and dig in for Miller and Walker Creeks in Burien, Normandy Park, and SeaTac.  March kicks off the land and water stewardship season – sign up today!  Plus, there’s a new volunteer opportunity you can do on your own schedule – storm drain marking!

For dates, times, places & other details of how you can participate in this unglamorous but rewarding work, check with the Miller/Walker Creeks Stewardship Page, maintained by Dennis Clark, the Basin Steward.  

 

Investments 101

Singapore's Changi Airport said on Monday (1 March) that it has acquired a 5 percent stake in Gemina, the operator of Rome's two major airports, for SGD$100 million (USD$71 million), its biggest acquisition ever.

Details: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1267441780.html

Comment:  Suppose Sea-Tac Airport were a separate for-profit corporation.  How much would you, a prudent investor, pay for a 5 percent stake in that business?  $71 million?  The two airports at Rome handled slightly over 38 million passengers last year.  Sea-Tac handled slightly over 32 million 2008 (2009 numbers not yet available).  So, on a passengers-served basis, a 5 percent stake in Sea-Tac should be worth $60 million or so, & the whole Airport would be worth $1.2 billion.  That's a minor fraction of what has been spent recently in capital building projects.  

Suppose that the Airport had to reveal the sort of financial information about itself that a firm on the stock exchange has to publish -- what would be learned?