Neighbors upset over third runway's use

As Port of Seattle and aviation officials insisted they had always intended to use the new Sea-Tac Airport runway in fair and foul weather, neighbors called the situation heartbreaking.

About 45 people attended a meeting Thursday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to discuss use of the new third runway. The meeting was organized by The Highline Forum, which represents nearby cities and the port.

"My wife, she cried for two weeks," Burien resident Ken Turner said at the meeting. "This is hugely affecting my personal life and my family. It's damaged me seriously."

Ten others said the noise had similarly affected their quality of life.

While a 1997 environmental study projected that the third runway would take 28 percent of airport arrivals in 2010, 44 percent of arriving planes landed on the third runway in its first month in operation.

"Those weren't projections on how we would use the runway," said Katheryn Vernon, the Federal Aviation Administration's director of terminal operations in the Western U.S. "Those were projections of how it would potentially be used in the future."

The FAA decides which planes use which runway.

Port officials say the numbers skew high because of winter weather and will average out lower over the full year.

In the years leading up to the construction of the runway, Port officials said they needed the new runway to prevent delays in bad weather. Since it opened in late November, the runway has been used in good and bad weather, and Vernon said that would continue.

"It's how we always intended to use it," she said.

Local officials said there was a disconnect between what they were told before the runway was built and how it is being used now.

"The community was led to believe and environmental-impact study indicated that it was a case of bad weather and storms," said state Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent. "Now here we are in operations and the premise seems to have changed."

Diane Summerhays, director of community development at the airport, said the FAA had agreed to stop using the airport between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., but Vernon disagreed, saying nothing would change about runway use.

The third runway will get even more traffic between April and October, when the port plans to rebuild the eastern runway.

Mark Reis, managing director for the airport, said while the percentages may be higher than projected, the number of flights may end up being fewer than expected because airlines are flying fewer, larger aircraft out of Sea-Tac.

The port will conduct a new noise-impact study starting in November, and the results would determine which homes would be eligible for more mitigation.

The results would be ready in two years. Before the runway opened, the port bought 64 homes near the new runway and installed insulation in 114 homes to help with noise based on an earlier study.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com