Noisy skies and pollution from airplane flight paths have been a concern in Federal Way for years. A proposed airport expansion will increase the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) capacity, but what impact will it have on Federal Way?
The Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) describes that expansion plan, and the draft environmental review is currently open for public comment. The SAMP seeks to improve operations at the airport in order to provide an optimal level of service to an increasing number of passengers.
The projected increase in annual passengers is expected to grow from 46.9 million in 2017 to 56 million in 2027, and further increase to 66 million by 2034, according to Port of Seattle documents.
This plan includes 31 Near-Term Projects (NTPs). One of those projects could actually benefit Federal Way, according to the city, which shared that it “will raise the descent angle for aircraft on the east runway (34 right) from 2.75 degrees to 3.0 degrees, raising the flight path. This would contribute to less air noise on that flight path in the Federal Way area.”
Highlights of some of the other planned NTPs include a new passenger terminal adding 19 more gates, enhanced taxiways, new air cargo facilities and increased fuel storage, including storage of sustainable aviation fuels.
A public meeting will be held 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 12 at Wildwood Elementary School, 2405 S. 300th St. in Federal Way, where community members can ask questions, submit comments and learn more about the SAMP.
Federal Way was not originally a public meeting location, but city leadership pushed for their inclusion.
“I am grateful to Port Executive Director Steve Metruck and the FAA for listening to our concerns and adding a meeting in our city so that our residents did not have to travel to another city closer to the airport,” Mayor Jim Ferrell told the Mirror in an email.
Media Relations Manager Perry Cooper of the Port of Seattle shared that within the SAMP draft environmental review, there is nothing specific to Federal Way because Federal Way “is not in the primary study area and no significant impacts were found that far south.”
The City of Federal Way has endorsed a request from five other airport cities to extend the response deadline to Jan. 15, 2025, which would give staff and residents from all six cities more time to analyze the draft documents and respond.
If that request is not fulfilled, the deadline will remain on Dec. 5.
The Federal Way City Council is still finalizing the response that they will submit for public comment, and does not have any statement on possible impacts to Federal Way as of now.
The council did discuss the SAMP and the increased impacts of air traffic on the Federal Way community at a council meeting on April 2. After a brief presentation about the SAMP and the public review, Councilmember Jack Dovey said, “If you remember when the third runway went in, it was a big process and Federal Way got left out of noise mitigation because we’re more than six miles and some change away, so this is going to be a big thing for our city.”
Councilmember Linda Kochmar added that she hopes Federal Way residents will be able to get funding for soundproofing of their homes through this process and spoke to the geography that amplifies the impact of air traffic.
“When the planes are coming in low, that noise is reverberating off the water, making it worse. Unless you have trees to absorb the noise, you need to have some soundproofing for your homes … we hope we can get that for you,” Kochmar said.
As just one example of the effects, Councilmember Lydia Assefa-Dawson spoke about a meeting held at Nautilus Elementary School in the Marine Hills neighborhood about a year prior.
“We were outside and half of the time we couldn’t even hear what we were saying because the airplanes were coming every, I don’t know, 30 seconds or less. The students were still playing outside, but the noise impact was really significant.” She added that “I think our city is highly impacted by this…I’m glad that we’re taking this seriously and addressing it.”
Although it wasn’t originally one of the council’s goals this year, councilmembers ultimately decided to add “Highlight air emissions, noise, safety issues and the upcoming SEA airport master plan public process for airport expansion” as their fifth goal for 2024.
Past airport noise issues
• The last major change to the airport was the addition of a third runway that received a lot of negative feedback from cities that are affected by the increased noise. The SAMP is different in that the projects focus on construction and system improvements that focus on efficiently moving passengers and planes.
• In 2016, the FAA shared responses to Federal Way community noise concerns in this document.
• In 2018, Mayor Ferrell put together the Quiet and Healthy Skies Task Force of volunteer citizen experts to evaluate the issue and brainstorm solutions.
• Burien actually won a lawsuit over airport noise.
• To learn more about the SAMP, review the draft environmental review, or submit a public comment, visit www.airportprojects.net.
• Public comment can also be submitted via email by emailing samp@portseattle.org or by mail if postmarked by the deadline at Mr. Steve Rybolt, Port of Seattle, Aviation Environment and Sustainability, P.O. Box 68727, Seattle, WA 98168.
