What We Can Do
We can show up, speak out, and write to all our Thurston County elected officials. The city, county, and the Port. Write letters to the editor, post on Facebook and NextDoor. Get the word out to friends and neighbors. Tell them we want the Port of Olympia to:
Stop plans that allow or encourage increased operations at the Olympia Airport.
Control the hours of operation and concentration of impacts over neighborhoods and Parks.
Return to local control over the airport.
Make neighborhoods impacted by the airport equal stakeholders with the aviation interests.
Seek alternatives for more sustainable transportation, such as rail.
Quit using our tax dollars to subsidize aviation interests.
Care about future generations.
Where to send your comments:
Please Send Your Concerns to Your Elected Officials (see below):
CC us so we can track and share your comments: StopOlyAirportGrowth@gmail.com
It is also helpful to email the Commissioners directly to their email addresses and also other Thurston County elected officials in cities and the county who should care about the well-being of their constituents.
ELECTED OFFICIALS
PORT OF OLYMPIA COMMISSIONERS
commissioners@portolympia.com
Jasmine Vasavada - JasmineV@portolympia.com
Jerry Toompas - JerryT@portolympia.com
Krag Unsoeld - KragU@portolympia.com
Joel Hansen - JoelH@portolympia.com
Sarah Montano - SarahM@portolympia.com
THURSTON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
county.commissioners@co.thurston.wa.us
Carolina Mejia - Carolina.mejia@co.thurston.wa.us
Rachel Grant - Rachel.grant@co.thurston.wa.us
Wayne Fournier - Wayne.fournier@co.thurston.wa.us
Tye Menser - Tye.menser@co.thurston.wa.us
Emily Clouse - Emily.clouse@co.thurston.wa.us
CITY OF LACEY – MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
council@cityoflacey.org
Andy Ryder, Mayor - Andy.Ryder@CityofLacey.org
Malcolm Miller - Malcolm.Miller@CityofLacey.org
Lenny Greenstein - Lenny.Greenstein@CityofLacey.org
Carolyn Cox - Carolyn.Cox@CityofLacey.org
Nicolas Dunning - Nicolas.Dunning@CityofLacey.org
Maren Turner - Maren.Turner@CityofLacey.org
Ryan Siu - Ryan.Siu@CityofLacey.org
CITY OF OLYMPIA – MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
citycouncil@ci.olympia.wa.us
Dontae Payne, Mayor - dpayne@ci.olympia.wa.us
Yen Huynh - yhuynh@ci.olympia.wa.us
Dani Madrone - dmadrone@ci.olympia.wa.us
Clark Gilman - cgilman@ci.olympia.wa.us
Kelly Green - kgreen@ci.olympia.wa.us
Robert Vanderpool - rvanderp@ci.olympia.wa.us
Paul Berendt - pberendt@ci.olympia.wa.us
CITY OF TUMWATER -MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
council@ci.tumwater.wa.us
Leatta Dahlhoff, Mayor - LDahlhoff@ci.tumwater
Brandon Weedon - BWeedon@ci.tumwater
Angela Jefferson - Ajefferson@ci.tumwater
Joan Cathey - JCathey@ci.tumwater
Eileen Swarthout - ESwarthout@ci.tumwater
Meghan Sullivan - MSullivan@ci.tumwater
Peter Agabi - PAgabi@ci.tumwater.wa
Kelly Von Holtz - KVonHoltz@ci.tumwater
Following are excerpts from comments of community members pertaining to the Olympia Airport operations and plans, including the draft Master Plan Update (MPU):
The MPU focuses solely on benefits to the few, while ignoring harmful effects to the many. In addition to lead from airplanes affecting children’s cognitive skills, research indicates that air traffic causes other negative health effects, most importantly from particulate matter and noise.
Noise is considered one, if not the most detrimental environmental effect of aviation. There is sufficient evidence for a marked negative effect of aircraft noise exposure on children’s cognitive skills. There is also sufficient evidence that aircraft noise disturbs sleep and can impair sleep recuperation.
The FAA specifically cautions airports on the need to complete an environmental review (including an EIS) if they know there is a lot of public opposition to a plan. Under FAA Order 1050.1F, “[a]n EIS is required when any of the impacts of the proposed action, after incorporating any mitigation commitments, remain significant to the human environment.”
Moreover, one factor that makes impacts significant is when “the effects on the quality of the human environment are likely to be highly controversial.” See Order 1050.1F(4-3.2); see also FAA Order 5050.4B (NEPA Implementing Instructions for Airport Actions).
We need a thorough environmental review now. Waiting to do that until discrete projects begin will lead to piecemealing (which SEPA and NEPA forbid). It will also prevent commissioners and the public from seeing the impacts that this MPU will have on our community's health, and especially children’s health.
This is a dangerous master plan. It needs to be set aside and reevaluated.
The airport is a critical habitat and breeding grounds for the threatened Olympia pocket gopher. Estimates suggest the airport contains thousands of Olympia pocket gophers. The airport is the largest contiguous designated critical habitat anywhere for the gopher. Its population has been declining due to habitat loss. The Airport is also one of the critical breeding sites for the streaked horned lark, though populations there have been declining recently due to factors like mowing during the breeding season and other disturbances. These species are experiencing significant declines in their populations, primarily caused by habitat loss and degradation.
The MPU ignores the serious public health risks that come from increased emissions and noise;
There are no regulations limiting loud aircraft and no restrictions on night flights. Often at night I am awakened by the sounds of helicopters flying over our house;
The proposal benefits very few people while ignoring the cost to those of us who live in a flyover zone;
There is no discussion in the MPU about impacts of increased fossil fuel-burning aircraft flights over Thurston County on local climate mitigation plans.
By my count, we average up to ten flights an hour directly over our heads during daylight, most so loud that we cannot hold a conversation out of doors while aircraft pass.
Unless you plan on buying all of us residents out at market value. Because with the noise, pollution and the environment erosion, these homes will be uninhabitable.
Increased air traffic has been proven extremely harmful in many studies on human physical and mental health, air quality, water quality, wildlife habitat, migration disruption and the ecosystem.
I am concerned about flight paths over schools and playgrounds and health impacts on children!
I am concerned about more noisy, low-flying aircraft, including thunderous helicopters, over residential neighborhoods and the inevitable decline in residential property values under flight paths!
I am concerned about impacts of loud and intrusive noise on Millersylvania State Park!
I am concerned about the impacts of noisy aircraft on wildlife in the nearby West Rocky Prairie Wildlife Preserve!
I am afraid that airport expansion will reduce the quality of life for me and my neighbors who live nearby. I am afraid that my health and sleep will suffer if the airport expands its operations with no attention to noise control such as higher flight height requirements, eliminating night flights, etc.
I don't want increased traffic, especially commercial traffic of trucks if the airport would be used for big cargo planes too.
Please stop discussion on airport expansion and halt development until a study is done on the health risk to our local community including decreased property values, lead exposure and noise pollution. Please show that you are operating as a good neighbor and elected official and address these concerns so that any expansion project discussions and plans account for the increased lead levels in our children, schools (peter g schmitt and tumwater high), decreased property values and noise pollution. Only then can the true cost to our community be known before decisions are made.
Clearly there are people who will benefit greatly from airport exansion, but it is not me or my neighbors. It is not local wildlife or sensitive enviroments in the flight paths of the planes and helicopters. There is time to change the troubling plan the Port is proposing.
Already, under conditions of current use, the Airport is a source of daily annoyance from the loud noise of numerous flights originating from it, including helicopter and fixed-wing pilot training flights that regularly circle my neighborhood. I can only imagine how much more degraded my quality of life would be with the greatly expanded number of flights and aircraft types that are proposed in the MPU!
Increasing the size of the Olympia airport, with more pollution, noise, and activity, is a terrible, poorly conceived idea that has no place in a reasonable conception of a livable south part of Olympia. Please scrap this idea immediately.