Mlnutes Exhibit A
Port Commission Regular Meeting of November 22. 2016

Washington State Senate
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Olympia, \'GA 98301-01"                    55rd LCBISIQUVC D'SU'ICt                B-mail knrcn.kciscn@lcg.wa.gov


November 22, 2016

To the Port of Seattle Commissioners:

I'd like to start by thanking each of you for your responsiveness thus far and look forward to
the continued work on this issue and others which concern the constituents of the 33'"
Legislative District.

Today I am here to report to you the increasing level of anxiety and unhappiness that my
constituents are feeling regarding activities and operations at the Sea-Tac International Airport.

For the past two years, as various runways have been shutdown and repaired, air traffic noise
has also shifted, and hundreds of homeowners from Federal Way to Burien have expressed
their grievances to me, asI imagine they have also done to you. Recently the Burien City
Council had more than 100 residents attend a meeting to discuss these changes in airport noise.
Federal Way had a public meeting two years ago with some 200 residents.

Many of these noise complaints are not only from the shifting patterns of air operations, but
from the extension of operational hours. While past practices prohibited regular operations in
the middle of the night and very early morning hours, that has apparently been abandoned as
the press of more flights have encroached into virtually every hour of every day.

With continued recordbreaking passenger demand for Sea-Tac, it seems we are on a collision
course with the Sea-Tac Aiport's plan to grow air cargo services. There are only so many acres

on this property, and just so many minutes in the day. Demand will surpass both space and
time availability. So what happens next?

Just last month, Russia's AirBridge Cargo was the latest new freighter service with flights to
and from Moscow to begin operations. This is in addition to the other cargo carriers, ABX, DHL
and Lufthansa Cargo now using Sea-Tac facilities. The cargo flight growth has been noticed by

my constituents due to these planes flying at all hours, and are generally much louder than
passenger jets.

Last month, Ijoined Sen. Judy Warnick and several other law and policy makers, including
Commissioner John Creighton, in opening the discussion of possible alternatives for air freight

Committees: Conuncrcc & Labor ' Hulllh (are . Ways 8.- Mcnns, Aswan: Rtmldng Member for the Capital Budget

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operations. We are considering policy options to broaden the aviation capacity of our state to
embrace underutilized facilities. It was a robust conversation, and I look forward to pursuing
the issue further.

Finally, I must note that the Port's plan to cut down thousands of local trees has drawn the
consternation and outright alarm of many of my communities and constituents. Trees help our
local environment's air qualitywhile airport operations degrade our local air quality. Trees
help buffer our neighborhoods from noise, while expanding airport operations increases noise
events to a near constant level. Trees help filter rain and improve water runoff. Simply
removing thousands of trees degrades our local environment and replacing thousands of
mature trees with small saplings is not sufficient mitigation in my view.

I understand that our State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) allows public agencies to make a
determination of non-significance and avoid a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This
segmenting of projects into phases makes it possible to bypass analysis of the project as a whole
and as a consequence avoids discussion concerning the cumulative impact on surrounding
communities.

50 to that end, I commend the Commissioners for their work with and responsiveness to our
communities by amending the current proposal to reduce the number of trees to be cleared and

urge you to keep this dialogue open.

Our common goal is to find solutions and achieve agreements, whether with local communities,
or with other ports, to provide a healthy, vibrant and growing passenger and cargo aviation in

our state.

Thank you,

Sen. Karen Keiser









Committees: Lonuncrcc & Labor ' Health (Am . Ways R Main/155mm Ranking .'tlcmbcr for the Capital Budgcl
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