Federal Way citizens shouldn’t expect a solution to aircraft noise anytime soon.
Although city of Federal Way officials attended a forum at the Sea-Tac airport on March 23, then met again with the Federal Aviation Administration to follow up on recent findings on March 31, the problem will likely get worse before it gets better.
Within the last year, hundreds of Federal Wayans have noticed an increase in aircraft noise, and they appealed to the city for help last July.
In 2015, the Sea-Tac airport set a record in passenger traffic for the fifth year with over 42.3 million travelers according to the Port of Seattle. It’s projected to retain its spot on the top 20 fastest growing U.S. airports list going forward.
And with summer just around the corner – when plane noise tends to be the most noticeable – city officials are looking for a quicker solution than the estimated three- to five-year period FAA officials said it would take to change current plane operations.
But even if people were willing to wait, Federal Way Chief of Staff Brian Wilson said, it’s not a task the FAA will take on.
“The FAA will not initiate changes based on Federal Way concerns in and of themselves,” Wilson said at a City Council meeting on Tuesday. “They won’t take that on unless they have further study.”
Wisons said the FAA suggested the city hire a consultant for that work, which is what other cities have done, but that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
To avoid that, Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell directed city staff to form a task force that includes citizens with expert knowledge in airport and FAA regulations and procedures. The task force would make recommendations on next steps.
Throughout the public outreach and community meetings the city has hosted to discuss this topic, officials have identified “tremendous expertise ” in the community “that we could draw from and make recommendations to these changes for FAA without going through the consultant process,” Wilson said.
Another alternative would be to request the Puget Sound region be added to the Metroplex list, a list of 21 metropolitan areas with multiple airports and complex air traffic flows that the FAA has identified as needing improvement.
“Given the fact that this is the fastest-growing airport in the U.S., we should have standing to make that request,” Wilson said.
The FAA also confirmed during the March 31 meeting with the city that there are different procedures for north and south routes for takeoffs and landings.
“That has been a very sensitive issue to our citizens because they perceive a difference and the FAA has acknowledged the difference and a lot of that is based on political realities of neighborhoods to the north that were not addressed as part of an environmental review earlier,” Wilson said.
At the Highline Forum, Sea-Tac airport officials presented a master plan that will address the airport’s extensive growth, despite the fact that their projections have been exceeded.
While the airport’s master plan focuses solely on how they will be able to absorb the growth, Wilson pointed out that the Sea-Tac airport is 2.5 square miles large while Dallas-Fort Worth is 40.5 square miles.
“There isn’t a regional discussion about Everett or other locations in the Puget Sound area to address the growth,” he said. “If we have these numbers of 50, 60, 70 percent growth in flights, the impact to neighborhoods south, north and surrounding SeaTac could be very substantial.”
Wilson said the city will continue to participate in regional meetings regarding the airport’s operations and planning. Citizens with experience in aviation and/or air traffic who are interested in joining the city’s task force should email Wilson at brian.wilson@cityoffederalway.com. The city is looking for seven to nine citizens to make up the task force.
For more information, email Marco Milanese, the community relations manager for aviation at the Port of Seattle, at milanese.m@portofseattle.org.
