May 2002  

May 16
SCAA reviews Boeing Field Part 150 Noise Study recommendations, provides comments to the County Executive Ron Sims
 
An SCAA committee has completed its review of the Part 150 Noise Study recommendations for King County International Airport (a.k.a. Boeing Field). This Study, when approved by the County Exec. Ron Sims and the County Council, will be submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for approval and potential funding of noise reduction programs.

The SCAA agreed with all the recommendations, but felt there were additional noise reduction efforts that should be included to reduce the impacts over residential areas. Of major concern in the study was the fact that the noise contours for Boeing Field are predicted to enlarge over the next 4 years, and no analysis was made of when the contours were expected to shrink -- the ultimate goal of all noise reduction programs.

The 23 page SCAA review and analysis was forwarded to County Executive Sims, and KC Department of Transportation Director, Harold Taniguchi on May 16, 2002.

• Click here to read the SCAA review on the Web.
• Click here to download the SCAA review in MS Word format.

May 10
San Francisco International and Los Angeles International Airports provide Almost Live display of flight tracks on the internet
 
SFO and LAX now provide data on the Internet that allows viewing of near real-time (10 minutes delay) flight tracks around their airports. In addition, information on the altitude and speed of each flight can be displayed, as well as other operational data. A detailed map of the area is overlayed that allows viewers to examine a particular flight path relative to a street or location on the ground. The websites also allow playback of data from previous days' operations.

• For LAX go to: http://www.lawa.org/lax/laxframe.html and select the "Noise Management" page, then "LAX Internet Flight Tracks".
• For SFO go to: http://www.flyquietsfo.com/ and select "Near Live Radar Flight Tracks".

April 13
Boeing 2001 Annual Report acknowledges the likelihood of more stringent noise standards for airplanes
 
From the Boeing 2001 Annual Report:
"Mandated noise level compliance A mandate went into effect January 1, 2000, requiring that all operations into and out of U.S. airports must be made with Stage 3 noise level compliant airplanes. A similar mandate will become effective in most European airports in April 2002. Compliance with these policies continues to be a factor for new airplane deliveries.

"During 2001, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) formulated new noise level standards for the world airplane fleet. The ICAO standard, referred to as Chapter 4, applies only to new aircraft types. Since there are no ICAO standards that apply to the existing world fleet, the European Union may enact more stringent requirements in order to force the retirement of the noisiest Chapter 3 airplanes currently operating in Europe.

"The Company supports the mission of ICAO and endorses the continuing development of international noise standards. The Company believes that adoption of common standards worldwide will promote both meaningful control of noise pollution and a healthy economic environment around the world."   [posted 4/13/02 by MGR]

March 2002  

March 20
Flight provides a glimpse into Boeing's state-of-the-art cockpit
by James Wallace - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
Boeing demonstrates new cockpit technologies that include opportunities for better noise abatement, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation for accurate flight tracks, and automatic throttle controls during take off for better noise reduction. (More...)
[posted 3/21/02 by MGR]

March 12
FAA Forecast Continued Drop in Air Traffic This Year, Strong Recovery in 2003
Federal Aviation Administration
 
The FAA released their forecast for passenger traffic for the next several years. They predict a strong growth in 2003 barring unforeseen circumstances. According to a related article in the NY Times on Tuesday, Sea-Tac has declined 20.2% in commercial flights in the first 5 months (October to February) since 9/11, and had the 5th largest decline, behind those for Washington D.C., Los Angeles, NY LaGuardia, and NY Kennedy. (More...)
[posted 3/14/02 by MGR]

March 7
King County Issues Noise Proposals for Boeing Field
 
KCIA has published its recommendations for the Part 150 noise study.

• The proposal can be downloaded here.
  
• Background on the Part 150 (Noise Abatement) study is here.
  

March 6
California vote stops El Toro airport
 
As a result of the success of Measure W, in Southern California, the El Toro Airport website is now the El Toro Info Site! The old Marine Air Force Station may now become a park instead of an international airport, though the Navy has announced plans to sell the land to the highest bidder.

Check out the El Toro Info site.
[posted 3/8/02 by david]

  February 2002  

February 26
Boeing to Introduce Quieter 747
Seattle P-I
 
Boeing announces plans to build a 747 that will be 20% quieter on takeoff and 40% quieter on landing.
[posted 2/27/02 by MGR]

February 26
Airport Communities Coalition wins two legal decisions vs. Port on 3rd Runway
Airport Communities Coalition
 
Read reports on the ACC court action of the past two weeks in Thurston County Superior Court. (read report)
[posted 2/26/02 by MGR]

February 6
PCHB denies Motion for Summary Judgment concerning 3rd runway water rights issue
Pollution Control Hearings Board
 
The Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) has posted their order regarding the ACC Motion for Summary Judgment on the Water Rights issue of the 3rd runway. The PCHB denied the Motion because they arrived at a split decision (1 Board member voted for and 1 against the summary judgment). The issue will presumably be decided at the full hearing in March. CASE was an intervenor in the Motion for Summary Judgment. The State DOE and the Port of Seattle were respondents. (read the order)   [posted 2/6/02 by MGR]

January 2002  

January 12
Partnership to develop property at the Grant County airport
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
Major development plans at Grant County Airport (Moses Lake) in Eastern Washington. Developers seek air cargo tenants. Runway is longest in the state, 13,500 feet. Grant County (Moses Lake) Airport could become a major regional airport especially for international air-cargo operations between the U.S. and the far east. Much of the air-cargo using Western Washington airports does not originate here. Moses Lake operations could reduce the air-cargo activity in Western Washington, reduce the impact on residents in the Seattle area especially at night, and provide a needed boost to the economy of Eastern Washington. (read article)   [posted 1/16/02 by MGR]

January 11
Payments to Air Carriers
 
Here's a list of where some of your tax dollars are going! (read more)   [posted 1/11/02 by MGR]

January 6
"Happy in his work: Seattle Port a paradise for new commissioner"
Seattle Times
 
The Port of Seattle's newest commissioner talks about the job with a child's excitement for a new Christmas toy. (read article)   [posted 1/6/02 by DB]

January 4
National Airport to Showcase Landing System
Washington Post
 
The Federal Aviation Administration will launch a new satellite-guided landing system at Reagan National Airport to allow properly equipped airliners to land in weather that now would force them to bypass the airport. (read article)   [posted 1/6/02 by CT]

January 1
ECAAN Lawsuit Dismissed
by Dr. Robert Rudolph, Eastside Citizens Against Aircraft Noise
 
ECAAN received notice that King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu granted the Port's motion for Summary Judgment and thus dismissed the ECAAN lawsuit.

The Judge ruled that since the Port did not recommend any change in flight paths, its action was not subject to State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review . ECAAN had argued that for the Port to recommend the status quo on the East Turn would subject the communities currently bearing all the noise of east turn departing jets to an ever increasing amount of noise with airport expansion, and that this action should be subject to SEPA review.

ECAAN's second claim was that the Port of Seattle Commissioners acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when they established a policy of not shifting noise from one residential community to another at the outset of the Part 150 study despite an FAA federal requirement for Part 150 studies that includes an examination of flight track alternatives.

The Judge ruled that the Port Commission did not act in an arbitrary or capricious manner as it did consider the various options and made a policy choice for noise concentration. She determined that the Port is a legislative, not administrative, body and as a legislative body its decisions can be biased and unfair. She further stated that this decision had nothing to do with her personal beliefs in this case, but her reading of Washington state law is that the remedy for an injustice by the Port is political by election of Port Commissioners, not legal.

The Judge stated that "the Court is concerned with the seemingly limited forum available to ECAAN for seeking relief from the current flight paths".   [posted 1/1/02 by MGR]

December 2001  

December 31
Port of Seattle 2002 Budget & Business Plan (.pdf file)
Port of Seattle
 
We have put up a link to the Port of Seattle's Adopted Budget for Calendar Year 2002 -- which runs to more than 150 pages. The Port's budget provides basic information as to the financial plans and previous financial performance, of the Port's various businesses. Here are some points to notice:

1. The Commissioners have increased the amount of real-estate-tax money that the Port will receive from King County property owners.
2. There is no statement as to the anticipated total outlay for the controversial third runway. There is (so far as we can see) no clear statement of the sources of funding for the runway -- current income will NOT meet the very high outlays expected in the near future, so the Port has to borrow against future income. Note also that the budget does not disclose in any clear way that the Port will have to pay huge sums for interest on its borrowings
3. Finally, a close reading of the Aviation parts of the budget discloses that on paper, as the Port does its accounting, the Airport is making profits of $50 million or more per year.

(You must have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer to read this document, which is about 2 MB in size (fairly big). To read it in your browser, click here. To download the complete document, Windows users can right-click the link and choose "Save Target As...".)   [posted 1/16/02 by CT]

December 19
Airport Communities Coalition challenge puts Sea-Tac 3rd runway on hold
by Kimberly Lockard, Exec. Dir., Airport Communities Coalition
 
The State Pollution Control Hearings Board has dealt a potentially fatal blow to the ill-fated third runway at Sea-Tac International Airport by putting on hold the State Department of Ecology's recently issued 401 Clean Water Certificate.

• ACC Statement
• Seattle P-I front-page story
• Pollution Control Hearings Board order

December 14
GAO: National AirSpace System (.pdf file)
U.S. General Accounting Office
 
The General Accounting Office (GAO) has released a 64 page document entitled "National Airspace System -- Long-term Capacity Planning Needed Despite Recent Reductions in Flight Delays". The analysis addressed three main questions:

• What initiatives are planned or under way by the federal government, airlines, and airports to address flight delays?
• What effect are these initiatives likely to have on reducing delays?
• What other options are available to address delay problems?

December 10
OpEd: "Don't buy into Port's runway red herring"
by State Senator Julia Patterson, et al., Seattle Times
 
A group of State Senators and Representatives take issue with the Port of Seattle about bad science being used to promote the Third Runway. (read article...)   [posted 12/10/01 by MGR]
November 2001  

November 21
Minneapolis-St. Paul Int'l. May Reconsider Mitigation Plan
N.O.I.S.E.
 
In further reverberations from the September 11 attacks that have airports claiming major losses, Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport (MSP) will reconsider its groundbreaking noise mitigation proposal.

The current MSP noise mitigation plan calls for spending $150 million to provide insulation to houses exposed to an average of 60 to 64 decibels of noise. That is significant because it was to be the fist major noise mitigation program in the country program to target homes beneath the 65-decibel zone.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission, which runs MSP, may meet as soon as next week to review the plan. NOISE will monitor developments closely as the decision may well be a bellwether for ambitions noise mitigation programs elsewhere.   [posted 11/21/01 by MGR]

November 20
Boeing And Rolls-Royce Claim Breakthrough In Noise Reduction
Airwise News
 
Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Rolls-Royce Aero Engines claimed today that they have completed a noise reduction flight test program that promises to make quiet jets even quieter. (read article...)   [posted 11/20/01 by MGR]

November 14
Potential Impacts on Aviation of 9/11 Terrorist Attacks
Puget Sound Regional Council
 
For the past five months the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) has been preparing a Strategic Plan for Aviation. This document is the report of a special committee created to consider the potential effects the September 11 disaster on aviation in the Puget Sound area.
Read the report (Rich Text Format: MS Word, etc.)   [posted 12/10/01 by MGR]

November 12
Flight Path Noise Linked to High Blood Pressure
LONDON (Reuters) - Apart from shattered nerves and interrupted sleep, living under or near a flight path could also cause high blood pressure and increase the risk of heart disease, researchers said. An abstract of the scientific paper appears here.   [posted 11/12/01 by MRR]

November 5
FAA: Market-Based Approach to Congestion Still Open for Comment
The FAA has extended the public comment period on a "market-based" policy to deal with airport congestion. (more...)   [posted 11/16/01 by MGR]

October 2001  

October 2
Heathrow Night Flights Breach Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that night flights out of London's Heathrow airport are a violation of residents' basic human rights.

• CNN report of Court's decision
• BBC report of business reaction to decision
• Summary of the Court's Judgement
• Full Text of the Court's Judgement (MS Word Document)

December 2000  

December 19
FAA: Duwamish Noise Abatement Report
Read the Executive Summary of the FAA's Duwamish Report (scanned from the original report dated December 19, 2000). In this report, the FAA argues against increased use of the Duwamish corridor (which would provide some noise relief to residential neighborhoods). Furthermore, the FAA reverses the sense of the Port of Seattle's request for extending the nighttime curfew, recommending instead that the curfew be decreased -- that planes fly later at night, and start earlier in the morning. (more...)

September 2000  

September 28
Risky Runway
by Roger Downy, Seattle Weekly
"The Port's new mega-project at Sea-Tac rests on a shaky foundation. With serious questions raised about its environmental impacts, its costs, and even its structural feasibility, it looks like a near-billion-dollar boondoggle in the making." (Read the reader's responses to Downey's article.) (read article...)

September 13
Sea-Tac fiasco is example of poor science, not mismanagement
by Bob Sheckler, Eastside Journal
"...from the beginning the Port has submitted inadequate and inaccurate scientific studies to support their various permit requests." (read article...)