Groups opposed to locating a major commercial and passenger airport in Thurston or Pierce Counties are proposing an amendment to state law that would exclude the two counties as options.
The environmental group Tahoma Audubon Society released a statement on Tuesday, January 3, stating that they were working with citizen advocacy groups “Stop the Airport” from Thurston County and “No Airport Here” from Pierce County to amend legislation that created the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC). The CACC is tasked with recommending a location outside of King County to build a new airport. Its deadline is June 15, 2023.
Tahoma Audubon Society stated that all three locations proposed by the CACC in Thurston and Pierce Counties should be excluded as options, due to proximity to Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM). The group claims that a new airport would interfere with military operations there
The site in Thurston County, located southeast of Olympia, overlaps with the training areas of the military base, according to Tahoma Audubon. The environmental group wrote that if the state were to adopt a recommendation selecting that location, it would violate its own code and US Code Article 2684a, which enables the Department of Defense to limit developments near military installations that would be incompatible with its mission.
As for the two sites being studied in Pierce County, the environmental group advised that authorities in JBLM could expand a two-mile boundary that prohibits commercial development should they determine that an airport and the developments of resulting hotels and restaurants would interfere with their operations. The two-mile zone, called the South Sound Military and Communities Partnership, is a joint planning agreement between the military base and surrounding counties.
The environmental group also cited that SSB 5165, which extended CACC’s timeline by 18 months, contained a provision that a new airport must not be within or in the vicinity of a military installation if it interferes with its mission.
The Washington State Department of Transportation already knew that the military base would be an obstacle for the three sites, according to an airport site selection study released in August 2022.
The study evaluated the compatibility of ten greenfield sites as the location of a new airport and found that “the sites in the southern portion of the Puget Sound region performed worse than those in the northern portion due to the presence of military airspace and [military training routes] surrounding JBLM.”
CACC welcomes opposition
CACC vice-chair Warren Hendrickson gave a presentation about the proposed airport during a meeting of the Lacey South Sound Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, January 4. During his presentation, he acknowledged and welcomed the opposition against the airport by the public and local government institutions.
“We have a website,” [about the CACC’s work], Hendrickson said, adding, “In three years, in round numbers, we've only attracted 700 people to be on the list of distribution of everything that CACC does.”
“After we announced the greenfield sites, within three weeks, we had 4,200 members on a brand new Facebook group about stopping the airport,” Hendrickson said. “The good news is by identifying three circles on the map, we have gotten everybody's attention,” he added. “That is a good thing… We need that because this decision is not going to be rammed down. We've got to decide that this is what we want to do collectively.”
Hendrickson said that as for their recommendation on June 15, they will likely concentrate on adding capacity to Paine Field Airport and that they would need legislative support for anything further. He said that he will be speaking with the House Transportation Committee on January 9 to talk about the issue.
Early in his presentation, Hendrickson said that the 1992 Flight Plan Study by the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) and Port of Seattle recommended a new airport in the South Puget Sound area as the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was going to reach capacity in the coming decades.
Hendrickson explained that Sea-Tac reaching capacity would mean that airlines would have to bid for limited landing and gate slots, driving an increase in ticket prices. He added that airlines would have to use larger airplanes and that flights to smaller cities would stop. There would also be increased pressure from smaller commercial airports to take over the load, which Sea-Tac would not be able to accommodate.
Thurston County site could accommodate fewer passengers than Pierce sites
The three sites being studied are in Thurston County Central; Pierce County East, located south of Puyallup and Graham; and Pierce County Central, located east of Roy and McKenna.
While Pierce County East and Central sites could serve 20.8 million and 19 million annual passengers, respectively, according to the Washington Department of Transportation, the Thurston County site could only accommodate up to 7.9 million passengers a year. Hendrickson acknowledged this issue but said that they needed a third site for consideration. (See graphic with this story.)
“The Thurston County site can only provide 8 million a year and is short of the mark. That's why Thurston County doesn't grade out as highly, but we needed to have a third site to consider,” he said.
12 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
CarlosPerez
Why not expand the Olympia Airport? Would that option be any more expensive than starting from scratch?
Friday, January 6, 2023 Report this
Southsoundguy
Carlos, nobody wants a commercial airport down here.
Friday, January 6, 2023 Report this
wildnature
Why is it assumed that people are entitled to be able to fly anywhere, anytime they want, on the backs of people displaced for that privilege, and with no consent? If we are hitting a wall on meeting consumer demand in this day and age of climate challenge and environmental loss and damage , we have to accept the planet has limits and adapt ourselves to what the resources can bear. Where even do they think they are going to get the sand for all the concrete they will need? NPR did a talk about how places where we have been getting our sand like in river deltas and the desert, are now saying NO! Because those ecosystems need that sand and it's been found removing it is really messing up river hydrology, etc.
The airline industry should stop advertising, stop giving frequent flyer miles AND run a lottery for the airplane seats they do have. There are lotteries for hiking trails that have become over- popular. And for other things with parameters you can't go beyond. One environmental group is encouraging people to take a pledge not to fly. It is quite eye opening about how they found if people gave up just one flight a year they planned to take, it would save more fuel burned than all of the cars in the U.S. use in a year.
A person's home is their fortress. Food, water and shelter are the 3 essentials to life. We have the right to have a home that we earned, to go in, shut the door and everybody respect your right to be left alone. And if they enter against your consent it is a break in. I'm in the circle and experiencing this realization right now.
But when an airport needs more room this right to our own home is Not so! If an airport decides to put up shop where you live, you have no recourse. Because being able to take a plane, and their airports are considered an essential infrastructure that local jurisdictions, states, and even the Feds, have no power over. Imminent domain being forced on people, in which ever site is chosen is no different than Putin coming over Ukraine's border and taking over. Or Israel burning Palestinians' olive orchards and homes to cleanse them of Israeli's supposed right to the West Bank.
Here we are in Thurston County, desperate to end our homelessness issue, and with the other hand thinking about displacing 28,000 settled, contributing County members from their homes, schools, and even for some, like my spouse, our places of employment! I voted for Governor Inslee and he takes good care of us under covid. But he has not taken a stand of this airport, while every County jurisdiction has, and then sends me emails about how he's going to meet Washington's Climate goals and he's going to make affordable housing a top priority of his too? He has not answered my letter about the airport, either. Where do you stand Governor? I've written to all the legislators on the Stoptheairport web site, and they all say they are against it, except a few. And that's not all the legislators that there are. Where do the rest of you Legislators stand?
When I was carrying a sign against the airport, a driver yelled at me that we have worse problems than airports. Yes we do. But not if you are the one who is living in the circle, don't own your own place that you thought you were settled in for life, loose your income, and have a FSC certified forest you have protected, and a self sustaining food garden you have worked on for 50 years. Jean Shaffer
Friday, January 6, 2023 Report this
TonyW33
The bottom line here is that Seattle has taken the NIMBY approach to the question, prohibiting consideration of another airport in King County or expansion of SeaTac. Instead they are keen to make Thurston County or Pierce County a suburb of Seattle. Typical entitled thinking. Moses Lake and Yakima have both expressed an interest in a new airport and Moses Lake has a very large abandoned US Air Force bomber base nearby. It is a near perfect location that would contribute to adding infrastructure to the flyover area of our state and eliminate the need for folks on the other side of the mountains to drive to Seattle before flying elsewhere. There are abundant reasons to site this facility in a better location and no reason to ruin our water resources in Pierce or Thurston Counties to suit Seattle/ King County. I urge all our local government officials in both counties to address this legislative question with all the representatives in Thurston County, Pierce County, the east side of the Cascades and any other ones that have a vested interest in the question. The process has produced precisely the wrong result and must be revisited.
Friday, January 6, 2023 Report this
JakePool
Join us in the fight against these proposed airports!
We are nearly 13,000 people helping to oppose these airports and growing. Let your elected officials and legislators know that we do not want our water poisoned, wells drained, our salmon and orca to disappear, our agriculture and businesses to be paved over, and to build over the last lowland green spaces of these counties.
Pierce County: NoAirportHere.org
Thurston County: StopTheAirport.com
We look forward to you joining. Thank you!
Friday, January 6, 2023 Report this
Sscott05
High speed rail (HSR) Seattle to Moses Lake was an active proposal in 1990, rejected in 1992 in favor of supporting a north-south line. We need both. BUT, if we build HSR Seattle-Spokane and build out an international airport in Moses Lake, we would open up the state to more balanced economics and opportunities. Incorporate fiber optic trunks and updated grid for renewable power transmission and we would reap huge benefits. And if you really want punch, add a spaceport.
Friday, January 6, 2023 Report this
Sscott05
High speed rail (HSR) Seattle to Moses Lake was an active proposal in 1990, rejected in 1992 in favor of supporting a north-south line. We need both. BUT, if we build HSR Seattle-Spokane and build out an international airport in Moses Lake, we would open up the state to more balanced economics and opportunities. Incorporate fiber optic trunks and updated grid for renewable power transmission and we would reap huge benefits. And if you really want punch, add a spaceport.
Friday, January 6, 2023 Report this
FirstOtter
Listen, CACC. There is NO SUCH THING as "greenfield sites" in Pierce or Thurston Counties. The 'greenfield sites' that show up on your map are backyards. Farms. Agricultural areas that grow food for humans. They're training areas for JBLM. THey're ball fields and playgrounds, state parks and county open areas.
You're gaslighting us, CACC. Your phrase 'greenfields' make it sound like it's vacant, empty land. It's NOT. Face it, there is no room anywhere left in W. Washington for this big mega airport. NONE.
You are willing to evict thousands of people out of their homes. You are willing to pave over thousands of acres of forest, prairie habitat, farms, lawns, flower gardens, school yards, etc. All for the purpose of a relatively few corporations to make more money.
We don't want this. We don't want the Olympia Regional airport to be ''''reconfigured"" so that you can sneak in thousands of jet flights. We don't want this enormous international airport shoved up our rear ends.
Those who do want this don't live in the flight paths. Those who do want this don't have to worry about their homes being condemned, evicted with a thousand bucks in their pocket for their now worthless property. Those who do want this don't give a darn about where are thousands of people going to live, work, and raise families?
YOu say our shouting resistance is a good thing because now we're paying attention. ARE YOU??? ARe you listening?
No. All you're trying to do is kill lifestyles, the environment, the quality of life that makes our counties nice places to live.
Take your mega airport and your expansion of Olympia's regional airport and shove it where the sun don't shine.
Saturday, January 7, 2023 Report this
2theroots
This is exactly right to stop the Mega Airport.
However people need to understand that we have a second threat. The Port of Olympia will vote in Feb on their Master Plan update which would allow changes to our local Olympia Airport that would bring many of the same problems. It would allow up to a max of 632 flight events (take offs or landings) a day! That is a huge amount of noise - and with planes with leaded fuel it means air and water pollution as well. Cargo flights prefer flying at night - destroying the sleep of all of us in a 10 mile radius of the airport (which by the way is everyone in Tumwater and most of Eastern Olympia). In addition there are 3 endangered species at the airport and the Port is showing incredible disregard for the what US Fish and Wildlife has already said about them - voting to cite a Coca Cola plant on the precise corner that is critical breeding ground and that US Fish and Wildlife said to leave undeveloped.
The Port has had no public hearing on this and does not intend to (only having had an "Open house" - ie PR event close to Thanksgiving) They also keep claiming they have no plan to expand the airport while they have previously made incremental expansions without notice - for example does anyone know when they voted to allow 18 helicopters to be stationed there? Yes that is why you hear so much helicopter noise! (No it is not from Fort Lewis). This master plan will give them the freedom to move forward but they would prefer you just think of it as master plan update. The public will hold a rally Monday the 12th at 5pm in front of the Port building to express our displeasure.
Saturday, January 7, 2023 Report this
JW
2theroots:
You said Monday the 12th. Monday is the 9th, Thursday is the 12th. Can you clarify?
Saturday, January 7, 2023 Report this
Kruz81
I want nothing to do with this damn airport. But some people here are idiots. JBLM has been here longer than us and the helicopters as well.
Saturday, January 7, 2023 Report this
BarbaraConlana
From the Port of Moses Lake describing the already existing, and underutilized, massive airfield:
The Grant County International Airport boasts one of the largest airfields in the United States and is capable of accepting the largest aircraft in the world. The airport enjoys 350 days of excellent VFR weather and is regularly utilized by military and commercial test flights. The airport is a facility favored by military and commercial flight test programs. It has capacity to accommodate much more given its five runways and onsite FAA control tower for commercial, military, and general aviation use.
Friday, January 13, 2023 Report this