What Could 1,500 Flights a Day Mean for Your Neighborhood? Now is the Time to Comment

From Defenders of Highline Forest Special Bulletin: June 2026

The long-awaited Draft EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) for the Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) has now been released by the Port of Seattle.

The Proposals by SAMP in a Nutshell:

1/3 More Noise
1/3 More Flights (1,500 takeoffs and landings per day by 2038)
1/3 More Pollution
Destruction of 56+ additional acres of forest for building cargo warehouses
NO financial compensation or mitigation
The addition of 4,439 people and 1,851 housing units within the noise boundary
Construction of two new large warehouses next to residential facilities, with 18 months of construction noise

Residents of Burien, SeaTac, Tukwila, and Des Moines should be very concerned and make their voices heard. Residents are being asked to pay a disproportionate cost of the environmental and health burdens of airport expansion for the entire region. The FAA considers a large number of comments, not as a tool to improve service, but in scoring which airports should receive various grants. That’s why your comment is vitally important.

The entire EIS document is over 6,450 pages. The essential takeaways of the document are:

The Port acknowledges a number of increased adverse impacts, including more noise and air pollution, but against the real-world lived experience of residents, argues these impacts do not meet regulatory thresholds that would require the Port to correct or compensate for those problems.
The document does not consider the cumulative increased burden of all the proposed projects, as well as other recent projects including current warehouse construction and the Highway 509 construction, and instead considers them individually.

To view the entire SAMP document go here: https://sea-samp.com/materials/

ACTION ITEMS:

Attend a Community Meeting to Learn More and Write an Email

Your email to the Port will be the most impactful if you describe your real-life experience of living near the airport. How has the loss of trees, warehouse construction, constant noise and air pollution affected you and your health? And how will adding 1/3 more flights degrade your quality of life even further?

Attend a Community Meeting This Month to Hear a Briefing on the SAMP and Make a Public Comment:

SeaTac: Wednesday, June 17, 5:30-7:00 PM at Glacier Middle School, (2450 S 142nd St., SeaTac) Presented by SeaTac Airport Community Coalition for Justice. (STACC4J)
SeaTac: Monday, June 22, 2026, 6–8 p.m. at Glacier Middle School (2450 S 142nd St., SeaTac)
Des Moines: Tuesday, June 23, 6–8 p.m. at Mount Rainier High School (22450 19th Ave. S, Des Moines)
Federal Way: Thursday, June 25, 6–8 p.m. at Wildwood Elementary School (2405 S 300th St, Federal Way)
Burien: Saturday, June 27, 0 a.m.–12 p.m. at Gregory Heights Elementary School (16201 16th Ave. SW, Burien)

Email Your Comment

The public has been provided a 60-day comment period, through 4PM on Tuesday July 21. Email your comment to: SAMP@portseattle.org.

For a deeper dive into the SAMP, a thorough review of the issues and concerns can be found on the SeaTac Noise Info site found here. Or this article.

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