Adding 35 Commercial Air Flights Per Day to Olympia Airport
By Charlotte Persons
NOW is the public’s best opportunity to oppose commercial air service at Olympia Regional Airport.
On October 12, 2022, at the final open house for the Airport Master Plan Update, Warren Hendrickson, the airport’s senior manager, explained the revised preferred alternative. It would reconfigure the airport to allow commercial passenger and freight air service. Hendrickson said that in December 2022, the Commissioners will set a date for the public hearing on the Airport Master Plan Update before their planned vote in February 2023.
To prevent approval of this plan, Thurston County residents need to send in comments on the Update. Comments will be officially logged pro or con if sent to ampupdate@nullportolympia.com
Be sure to send copies of your email to all your local elected officials. Include Port Commissioners so they can see your reasoning. Also, please copy me at cpersons@nullyahoo.com. A newly formed group is working against the addition of commercial service to the airport—Stop Olympia Airport Growth—and we would like to document local opposition.
You can also sign the petition at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-olympia-airport-growth?source=direct_link&
Another opportunity to learn more about this issue is to attend the community meeting on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, at 7:00 PM at the Olympia Center Multipurpose Room A, 222 Columbia Street. NW, Olympia, WA.
This is the best time for public input on the overall effects of adding commercial service to the airport. Once the Port Commissioners approve the Airport Master Plan Update, there will be little future opportunity for public comments as the airport improvements will have already been approved and may be added one at a time.
Background
The Airport Master Plan Update would not increase the physical footprint of the airport. However, the Update outlines changes to the safety equipment, runways, taxiways, hangars, passenger terminal and parking lots so the airport can begin commercial “operations” by 2030 to 2035. For more information see https://airport.portolympia.com/airport-master-plan/
By 2040 the Update calls for 12,800 commercial “operations” per year to the airport. That is 242 per week or 35 per day!
Many of the new commercial flights will be passenger and cargo JETS. And once commercial service has begun, under current FAA rules numbers of commercial flights, hours of operation, and the airport’s footprint can be increased WITH NO LOCAL CONTROL The history of Paine Field is a sad example.
The passenger jets and commercial cargo planes will dramatically increase noise and emissions under the flight path and all around the airport. Prevailing winds and the north/south orientation of the main airport runway mean that flight paths of planes approaching and departing the airport are over parks and public and private wildlife preserves. The most well-known are Millersylvania State Park and West Rocky Prairie. The Olympia Airport itself is habitat for two endangered species, Streaked Horned Lark and Mazama Pocket Gopher.
Wildlife in these areas will be negatively affected, but the planned air service expansion is also an environmental justice issue. The flight paths will be over densely populated residential areas in Olympia, Tumwater, and Lacey. Studies of airports across the U.S. show that property values fall around airports and under their flight paths. People of any means move away from the noise and pollution and real estate values fall. Over time, airports create around themselves areas of social inequity.
Numerous studies document the many significant adverse public health risks from both noise and pollution to people who neighbor airports or live under flight paths. The FAA recently approved non-leaded gas for piston-engine airplanes, but the rollout will be slow, perhaps more than ten years. Removing lead emissions will help reduce health risks to people living and working near small airports. However, other emissions from both piston-engine aircraft and jets, such as nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and ultra-fine particles, would still adversely impact their health. Children with asthma and adults with heart conditions are especially vulnerable.
The significant expansion of operations outlined in this Airport Master Plan Update would undermine the Thurston County Climate Mitigation Plan. Despite the Port’s talk of sustainable aviation in the “airport of the future”, scientists say there are many obstacles to airplanes fueled by biofuels, hydrogen, and electricity. Another problem is that commercial planes last 20 to 40 years. In fact, the Port’s October 12, 2022, presentation estimates that only 2% of the U.S. fleet will be using sustainable fuels in 2035.
A state or national environmental impact study (EIS) would analyze the economic, environmental, health, and vehicle traffic impacts of this planned service expansion. However, no EIS has been done of the Olympia Airport since 1994, nor is one currently being done for the Airport Master Plan Update.
Photo credit: Olympia Regional Airport runway, wsdot.wa.gov
