June 6, 2026 Public Meeting with Rep. Adam Smith and State Senator Tina Orwell

June 6, 2026 Beacon Hill Council Public Meeting, 10 AM to noon

Held in Person and on Zoom at El Centro

Community Members present:  14 (excluding BHC board)

Several community members on Zoom

Special Guests:  Senator Tina Orwell, Rep Adam Smith, Laura Schladetzky

Board Members Present:  Maria Batayola, Amy Kaminishi, Kalia Carter, Simon Knaphus, Joseph Ruiz, Gerry Chambers

Meeting began:  10 AM

Welcome:  Maria

• Background on work on Environmental Justice for the Airport

• We need a strategy to ask push for recognition, currently communities under the airport have no status to ask about remediation

• Cited studies from UW about noise and small particulate matter

Rep. Adam Smith:

• The first step is to measure the problem, and he has proposed legislation to do that and there is an ongoing study, which concludes this year.

• One solution is to use alternative fuels, which is what they are trying to do, however SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) is not fully developed.

• Second is to invest in other alternatives.  China has made an electric car with a much better battery

• We need to invest and do the research and we have the capabilities to test things more rapidly.  He wants us to invest in that research, however this administration is quite hostile.

• He said it would be nice to put the airports farther from the people, try to spread the environmental harm, like has been done in Denver.  He has not given up on that dream

Mary Ann: Brought up the issue of Cargo, wondering about how it moves around, the growth in that area and its impact.  What is the growth in that area? 

Rep. Smith reported that perhaps a different type of jet fuel might be able to reduce the problem.  He reported that Moses Lake was quite interested in partnering as a hub for cargo

Genevieve - is there any funding for high speed rail.  That would be an enormous benefit.  

Rep. Smith replied  that Californa tried to develop it and it was a disaster.  He stated that every other major developed country has developed high speed rail.

Question about autonomous drones.  Met a contractor who had a $400,000 drone rather than $4 million.  Rep Smith stated that he wanted to encourage competition, but the best way to save money was not to start wars.

Simon raised concerns about the wars and what Rep. Smith can do.  Rep. Smith stated that we should be doing more to stop wars, and that he has sponsored a bill to sanction Israel.  Particularly in Lebanon there are opportunities, they do not like Hezbollah. He is in favor of the US government putting more pressure on Israel. He felt that President Trump is not making it better and that Secretary Hegseth has no concern for any rules of conduct.  He again urged diplomacy and reiterated the risks of trying to fight it out.

He did state that we have done joint contracts with Israel on development of weapons systems and tunnels, but the US is not completely integrated with the Israel military.

Question:  Prathan stated that as a researcher, he notes that most experiments fail, and wondered about support for research.  Rep. Smith reported that some Republicans say “It is God’s plan that we burn fossil fuels.”  He noted that funding for research is being cut.  He noted that our current political situation is driving up the cost of fossil fuels. The easy part is investing in renewables and that modern technology allows us to test many more theories more efficiently.  There is some nuclear technology that has a goal of all of the Microsoft Campus to be powered by fusion within the next few years.  He stated that Trump is cutting the funding, out of spite, to alternative energy. Rep. Smith is 100% confident we can get off fossil fuels.  He noted that in 2008 , the Republican party had a platform to get into alternative fuels, and this should not be a partisan issue.

Maria asked if Rep. Smith can get some recognition of communities under the flight paths, and that these impacted communities need to be acknowledged.  Rep. Smith noted that this group, including Beacon Hill Council, has been instrumental in getting that recognition.  With study, we can show how much the different flight paths affect both noise and pollution.  He feels that for too long we have ignored the impact on people.

The preliminary approval to expand the flights at SeaTac by 87,000 and the NEPA review of No Significant Findings is being challenged, and we are getting help from Earthjustice for that.

Question about how long do these research studies take?

UW looked at Atlanta and LAX and have done extensive studies.  You can't separate airplane pollution from general pollution, but some of the small particles cross the blood brain barrier.  

We are the first in the nation to Work with EPA to gather information about small particles

Sen. Tina Orwell:

When we can link the small particles to health, it has brought the state and King County to the table.  Sen. Rebecca Saldana has been a champion for the HEAL act.  We want to pass legislation to really look at the impact before expansion.  We also need to see about mitigation and we need stable dollars.  Some countries have landing fees.  Does there need to be a Bill of Rights for airport communities?  Ports from all over the state need to join together.  Also a tax on airport fuels would provide more funds.

The state got $6 million to have money come back to the community, giving support for asthma intervention, which was a huge success.  A lot of the work that UW was doing also came from Federal Dollars and that money has been cut.  The support included HEPA filters for homes.  Schools are now fitted with HEPA filters.

Geneivieve stated that there was a need for more information from the state about the need for air filters, that people are unaware of the impacts.   We learned about how well those air filters work from Boston and working with Logan Airport.

Maria reported that  BHC just got a grant  and wants to work with weatherization, getting money for HEPA filters.

Trump removed all the consideration of racial equity in environmental impacts despite the reality of these impacts.

13% of all greenhouse gases in King County comes from SeaTac.  

Maria stated that the narrowing of the flight  path in 2016 was legislated.  She reported that “zippering” allows how close the planes can be safely.

A Commercial aviation siting group is trying to site another airport, but is meeting with resistance.  There is a feeling that overburdened areas shouldn’t take all the brunt of expansion.

There is a sense that SAF - Sustainable Aviation Fuel– is farther away from implementation than electric.

We need to Fix the harm, have no added harm, mitigate the harm.  There is a feeling that the 

Port does just enough to meet the requirements.  SEPA (State Environmental Protection Agency) is still under review.  There is competition for funding and the hardest lesson is that the Port says the entity to approve airline flight paths and expansion is the FAA, and they can't just stop serving. 

Genevieve - Noted a correlation with  Parkinson’s disease and heavy metals.  She volunteered to put us in touch with the physician who is head of Environmental Policy. 

Angelo had a question that he had  worked with Susan, who was monitoring decibel levels and he wondered what happened with that data?  Maria noted that noise levels act as a proxy for air pollution.  That data was used to help with Dr. Lozano’s study about effects of long term exposure to aircraft noise and pollution.  These are long term projects with difficulties to implement changes.  Money was appropriated for asthma treatment and HEPA filters, after 2 young girls died from asthma. It was noted that schools are now better.  Maria stated that the biggest concern is for the airplane and who is inside it, not who is underneath it.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30 and lunch was served from El Sabrocito food truck.