Suggested Talking Points for Your Consideration and Use
(Abstracted from real messages sent to the Commission)
Please do an EIS for the Airport Master Plan Update (MPU). The fact, Warren Hendrickson (Port Director of Operations) said to the Tumwater City Council in 2023 that commercial passenger traffic was “forecast” to increase from zero to 20,000 by 2040. That is a 200% increase, not 5%. See page 10 here for his quote.
Alternatives to fossil fuels will solve the problems that citizens are telling you about. Electric and hydrogen airplanes are decades if not forever from adopttion. And the current helicopters and planes will not be replaced for decades.
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.
Studies consistently show that ultrafine particulate matter (UFP) is elevated in and around airports. Research indicates increased health impacts near airports including premature death, preterm births, and decreased lung function.
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.
This is a benefit the wealthy few at the cost of the many.
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.
The only ones benefiting by an expansion in the short term, are the people lining their pockets with the profits.
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!
I read that your justification for this monstrosity of a social and environmental crime is that you are operating under a ‘mandate’. It is time we disband you, defund you, and rescind this mandate.
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.
Sample Comment to the Port Commissioners
Dear Commissioners,
You do not have to approve the Airport Master Plan Update. If you do, it would mean destruction of our county as we know it. The MPU focuses solely on benefits to a few while ignoring harmful effects to most people living in our community. These include serious public health risks from aircraft fuel emissions and noise. We need a thorough environmental review now. Waiting to do that until discrete projects begin will lead to piecemealing (which SEPA forbids) and will prevent you and the public from seeing the impacts that this MPU will have on our community's health (especially the health of children) and the environment. The FAA specifically cautions airports on the need to complete an environmental review if they know there is public opposition to a plan.
This is a terribly dangerous master plan. It needs to be set aside and reevaluated.
Where to send your comments:
Email Addresses of the Port Commissioners: commissioners@portolympia.com
CC us so we can track 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.
Port of Olympia Commissioners
Amy Evans, Bob Iyall, Jasmine Vasavada, Maggie Smith, Sarah Tonge, Alex Smith
commissioners@portolympia.com
amye@portolympia.com, bobi@portolympia.com, jasminev@portolympia.com, maggies@portolympia.com, saraht@portolympia.com,
Thurston County Commissioners
Carolina Mejia, Emily Clouse, Rachel Grant, Tye Menser, Wayne Fournier
county.commissioners@co.thurston.wa.us
carolina.mejia@co.thurston.wa.us, emily.clouse@co.thurston.wa.us, rachel.grant@co.thurston.wa.us, tyemenser@co.thurston.wa.us, wayne.fournier@co.thurston.wa.us
Olympia City Council
Dontai Payne, Mayor, Clark Gilman, Dani Madrone, Jim Cooper, Kelly Green, Robert Vanderpool, Yen Huynh
citycouncil@ci.olympia.wa.us
dpayne@ci.olympia.wa.us, cgilman@ci.olympia.wa.us, dmadrone@ci.olympia.wa.us, jcooper@ci.olympia.wa.us, rvanderp@ci.olympia.wa.us, yhuynh@ci.olympia.wa.us
Lacey City Council
Andy Ryder, Mayor, Malcolm Miller, Lenny Greenstein, Michael Steadman, Carolyn Cox, Robin Vazquez, Nicolas Dunning
council@cityoflacey.org
andy.ryder@cityoflacey.org, malcolm.miller@cityoflacey.org, lenny.greenstein@cityoflacey.org, michael.steadman@cityoflacey.org, carolyn.cox@cityoflacey.org, robin.vazquez@cityoflacey.org, nicolas.dunning@cityoflacey.org
Tumwater City Council
Debbie Sullivan, Mayor, Leatta Dahlhoff, Angela Jefferson, Joan Cathey, Eileen Swarthout, Michael Althauser, Peter Agabi, Kelly Von Holtz
council@ci.tumwater.wa.us
dsullivan@ci.tumwater.wa.us, ldahlhoff@ci.tumwater.wa.us, ajefferson@ci.tumwater.wa.us,
jcathey@ci.tumwater.wa.us, eswarthout@ci.tumwater.wa.us, malthauser@ci.tumwater.wa.us,
pagabi@ci.tumwater.wa.us, kvonholtz@ci.tumwater.wa.us