Next Noise Workshop Scheduled for 27 October

The study team for the Sea-Tac noise study has announced that the next public workshop will be held on Wednesday, 27 October, at Mt Rainier High School, in Des Moines.  See below for details.

Since the last workshop (9 June), the study team has prepared air-traffic forecasts for the Airport (with no public input or participation).  The traffic forecasts have been used to prepare noise-exposure maps (with no public input or participation).  The study team is also preparing maps to show noise-sensitive areas & facilities (again with no public input or participation).  All these maps will presumably be available at the workshop.  

The study team has, so far, rejected requests to extend the noise mapping out to the 55 YDNL contour.  The work is restricted to the small area within the 65 YDNL contour.  The study team calculates that there are 6.30 square miles within that contour.  Almost half (2.96 square miles) is within the Airport itself.  The study team has strongly indicated that it will not propose any mitigation or noise-relieving measures for non-Airport areas outside the 65 YDNL contour.  In other words, mitigation & noise relief is under consideration for only 3.34 square miles very close to the Airport.  Too bad about the noise in Federal Way, in the Shorewood neighborhood of Burien, in other parts of the greater Highline area, & in Beacon Hill & Rainier Valley in Seattle, & points north & south.

The text of the announcement follows:

Third Part 150 Study Public Workshop Set for October 27th Part 150 Study also an Agenda Item at September 22nd Highline Forum

 

The community is invited to attend the third in a series of public workshops for Sea-Tac Airport's Part 150 Noise Study on October 27th at Mount Rainier High School (22450 19th Ave. S.) in Des Moines.  The program is from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.   At the workshop, the new airport-area noise exposure "contour" maps showing neighborhoods currently affected by noise and those that will be affected by noise in the future will be unveiled and discussed.  As with the last two workshops, small group working sessions will be utilized to foster conversation and actively develop solutions to reducing airport noise.   On September 22nd, the members of the Highline Forum will also discuss the Part 150 Noise Study at the City of Des Moines Activity Center - 2045 South 216th Street, Des Moines.  The meeting begins at 2:30 and the public is invited to observe.  The Highline Forum includes the southwest King County communities of Des Moines, Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Tukwila and Federal Way and the Highline School District and Port of Seattle. Please visit the dedicated Part 150 Study website for all documentation and reports connected to the study including the comprehensive summary from the June 9th public workshop.

 

 

Sea-Tac Part 150 study behind schedule

The following statement on the Sea-Tac Part 150 noise study has been submitted to the Port Commission by RCAA.

The Part 150 noise study has fallen far behind the published schedule.  Public-participation is suffering as a result.  We fear that the consultants will make major decisions outside of public view, in order to catch up. 

Let’s review:  In order to do meaningful noises reduction, you have to understand where the noise comes from.  That requires that you have good data on certain key elements --

            *  the fleet mix &

            *  flight operations, present & future

In order to predict future flight operations in detail, you need to know how the various runways will be used:  you need a runway-usage plan.  You also need aviation forecasts, estimates of future travel for the whole airport. 

From all of this information, you can prepare noise exposure maps to tell you where noise is being experienced, & you can then propose methods to reduce the noise.  And the point of this exercise is to reduce the noise.  Reduction is cheaper than mitigation.  

Aviation forecasts for the Airport were scheduled for completion in early May, but so far the consultants have released no information about that key element.  

Nothing in the way of a runway usage plan has even been discussed with the public.  It is true that in the end the actual runway usage plan will come from the FAA, but the consultants cannot wait for the FAA to make a proposal.  In a Part 150 study, proposals come from the airport operator (that’s the Commission), & the airport operator hires a consultant to make proposals.  

Noise-exposure maps as of the present are due out next month.  The public does not know what will be mapped or how.  

The schedule calls for the consultants to produce their analysis of future noise exposure in September.  This work will apparently be completed before the next opportunity for public input, which is the workshop planned for October. 

No runway-usage plan, no traffic forecasts, & no current noise data.  All these key elements are to be dealt with in the Summer and Fall, with no public involvement, to be followed by publication of maps of future noise exposure, again with no public involvement till after the decisions are made. 

If you have the key elements, you can know where the noise is.  If you develop the data for these key elements with no significant public involvement, then you do not have meaningful public participation, no matter how many workshops are held, no matter how many slides there are in your Powerpoint presentations.  And as you move to the stage of proposing noise remedies, you will NOT have consensus on the underlying data.  And you will not have much public acceptance of the final results of the study. 

 

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?

Good Work !

Congratulations to those who attended last night's kick-off workshop for Sea-Tac Airport's Part 150 study!  Despite a restrictive format, the public delivered a loud & clear message spelling out major issues that concern us all.  

After an initial presentation, the attendees (estimated at about 200) crowded around the whiteboards in 15 break-out groups.   We heard over & over that the attendees do not believe that the FAA's 65 DNL noise assessment has anything to do with noise as it is actually experienced.  We heard over & over that single-event noise --not averages -- is what intrudes on people's lives.   Sharp questions were raised about the five-year planning horizon:  the study needs to look long-term.  And what will the Airport look like, what will it sound like, at its maximum?  At the concluding, wrap-up session, there was widespread spontaneous applause for comments that the region needs two more airports, & for the suggestion that if the present noise cannot be fixed, the airport should be moved.  Less-controversial comments included pleas for more noise insulation, more buy-outs, more sellers' assistance programs.

Part 150 workshop on 24 February

The Sea-Tac Part 150 (noise) study will kick off on Wednesday, 24 February, with its first public workshop, at the Mt Rainier High School, 22450 19th Avenue South, Des Moines, 98198.  The session is scheduled to run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

In consultation with other community members, RCAA has prepared a list of 16 key issues for the study, & an accompanying group of questions – 25 at last count.  If you would like to see one or both of these documents, e-mail us.  We hope that they will be helpful to people who want to participate on the 24th.

Unfortunately, the Airport has set up this study so that it will not address most of the issues that are important to the broader community.  The meeting on the 24th is very early in the two-year process, & we do not expect the consultants or Airport staff to be offering any actionable proposals on how to cut noise significantly.  However, the folks running this study will probably say that the community is in full agreement with their limited approach – unless there is a reasonable turn-out of folks to point out that the study needs a much broader focus.  Thus, early comments & questions may turn out to have real importance.

You can see the agenda for the meeting, the Powerpoint presentation prepared by the consultants, & other relevant paperwork at the consultants’ new website for the study,

http://www.airportsites.net/SEA-Part150/meetings.htm

Sea-Tac plows ahead with Part 150 study

The Port of Seattle announced today that a contract had been signed with the aviation consultancy Landrum & Brown, to manage the pending Part 150 (noise reduction) study at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.   The Port's news release appears below.

The contract was negotiated privately with the consultant, without input from the communities and local governments who suffer harm from the Airport's noise.   We have not yet seen the actual contract, but the proposed scope of work for that contract, as we have seen it in the last couple of weeks, fails to address about two-thirds of what can & should be done in a study like this.  RCAA's request for disclosure of the actual contract is pending with the Port.  More on this as soon as we have solid information.

Text of the news release

The Port of Seattle has finalized its contract with Landrum & Brown, an aviation and airport planning firm, hired to assist the Port with the management of Sea-Tac Airport's Part 150 Study. Learn more about the Part 150 Scope of Work (103 KB, PDF - http://www.portseattle.org/downloads/community/environment/Part150-scopeofwork.pdf) which includes the project schedule and a detailed description of the work items required for completion of the study.
 
The date and the location of the first public workshop, open to all, will be announced soon.

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.  

No public participation in Part 150 study yet

Unofficial word just in that Sea-Tac Airport staff have selected the consultant for the pending Part 150 study -- Landrum & Brown, a well-known aviation consultancy. In an e-mail to a local citizen, Stan Shepherd, manager of airport noise programs, has mentioned that a consultant has been selected, but did not identify that firm.

So far as we know, this selection was made privately, by staff alone, & with no public participation of any sort.  A private selection implies that Airport staff have already determined the work that they want the consultants to do -- & the work that they do NOT want the consultants to do.  At the moment, we do not know if the Port Commissioners were involved in the selection process.

More on this as we learn more.