The Airport Communities Podcast

The third in a series on sound insulation.In our second episode, we rushed through a history of airport planning, items covered in far more detail in previous episodes. For most of commercial aviation history, noise abatement meant distance. Everyone agrees that keeping airports away from people is a good idea. The question is: who should move, you or the airplanes?This episode is about the details of sound insulation. Mitigation. The second-choice for people living under the flight path. Most of it is organized by the Part 150 section of the federal code and funded by the FAA. But sound insulation isn't one program. It's not one even one program for each airport. It's a series of voluntary programs and grants at each airport, sometimes one after the other, sometimes overlapping.The Port of Seattle has one of the largest and longest running set of sound insulation programs in the United States. As of November 2026, Sea-Tac Airport is in the second phase of its fifth Part 150 Study. But really this is at least the tenth sound insulation program offering. Each has had its own pluses and minuses; its own terms and conditions.It gets better. Each large airport has its own long-running set of programs. Each of those have had their own successes and failures; their own terms and conditions.We said that a better long-term approach is possible and that such an approach is a '1040A'. But to get there, we should first get a taste of the way things are today: the 1040 long-form.TopicsEp #45 The incredibly high cost of free windows (Sound Insulation Part 2)Ep #44 The incredibly high cost of free windows (Sound Insulation Part 1)Ep #24 The 400,000 tube going 200mph (Flight Paths Part I)Ep #9 Part 150 for DummiesEp #17 The Airport DiscountEp #9 Part 150 for DummiesPart 150 for Dummies1985 Part 150 Study I1990 Final Package of Mediated Noise Abatement Actions (NoiseMediation Agreement)1993 PSRC Resolution A-93-031994 Part 150 Study II Amended1995 Port of Seattle Submittals to the PSRC Expert Panel1996 PSRC Expert Arbitration Panel: Final Decision on Noise Issues1996 PSRC Third Runway Decision Process Summary1998 Letter to Seattle Times on Federal Grant Assurance C.62002 Part 150 Study III2012 City of Des Moines Ordinance #1539 Sound Code Repeal2013 Part 150 Study IV2020 Port of Seattle 2020-04 (Accelerated Sound Insulation Program)2024 Port of Seattle 2024-04 (Sound Insulation Repair and Replacement Pilot Program)2025 National Defense Authorization Act (Pub. L. 119-60)2026 Part 150 Study V (NEM)

The second in a series on sound insulation.In our first episode, we introduced the topic with some harsh words for airport communities and especially the community roundtable process.This time, we rush through a history of airport planning, items covered in far more detail in previous episodes. This is mostly about abatement–meaning distance. Everyone agrees that keeping airports away from people is a good idea. Or, the other way around depending on your point of view.We take a brief trip to Florida to talk about abatement vs. mitigation and why the federal government has traditionally considered both as one-time offers.The federal government feels very strongly that once you know of a harm, it is not their obligation to bail you out over and over. Once a piece of land is considered high impact, the government wants you (and cities) to rezone the land to more compatible uses. This is a tough concept for everyone to accept. What makes it even tougher is that the federal government provides relief to individuals, but not to cities.The one-time aspect is a stick–meant to encourage homeowners and cities to transition to those more compatible uses.But whether you’re Florida or Sea-Tac, the abatement or mitigation goes to the homeowner. There has never been funding to help cities make these transitions. Neither side has any incentive to learn how to make that transition.Most people think that Part 150 is a top-down, permanent program–like Social Security. It is actually, a recurring grant program, structured a lot more like Medicaid. It provides money and rules for using that money, but it also provides a Byzantine set of options for each airport to tailor their own, time-limited programs. That is what ‘voluntary’ means.Every aspect of airport community engagement, roundtables, and even the word ‘voluntary’, make it sound like something communities can effectively navigate. That is as likely as any group of non-specialists developing an effective Medicaid program.In theory one could engage independent experts to comparison shop programs and then negotiate as a fiduciary on your behalf. That almost never happens.In hundreds of cases, communities have spent enormous sums of money on legal fees to attempt to change flight paths–an approach that has almost never worked.Since 1985, the Port of Seattle says it has spent over $350,000,000 on sound insulation programs. Given that kind of money, in what other context would any community not engage independent experts to negotiate a program in their best interests?TopicsEp #44 The incredibly high cost of free windows (Sound Insulation Part 1)Part 150 for DummiesEp #24 The 400,000 tube going 200mph (Flight Paths Part I)Ep #17 The Airport DiscountEp #9 Part 150 for DummiesTo learn how you can make a difference:STNI.info/subscribe

Ep #44 The incredibly high cost of free windows (Sound Insulation Part 1)The first in a series on sound insulation.As a solution to airport noise, sound insulation was never anyone's first choice. But a Port Package is emblematic of all airport community issues because it's the one program where the results are right in front of people over time. Every other attempt to deal with these issues--air quality, economic harms, even flight paths, are abstractions. People try. Or not. But you can't see the results.But you can see complaints about Port Packages everywhere.  As well as all the homes that never received Port Packages, but should have.The FAA has referred to the national airspace as The Railroad in the Sky. But unlike any other form of transportation, this railroad is constantly moving. Aircraft will fly over your home whether you signed an avigation easement or not. Until now, signing that document only been entitled individuals to a short term benefit--with almost no accountability or protection for the property over time.These issues are not unique to Sea-Tac. Every airport that has attempted a large sound insulation program has been plagued by similar issues--and worse.The failure of sound insulation provides a key to solutions on all airport community impacts. The reason it has gone so poorly is the 'one and done' mentality of all airport mitigations since the 1970s. We establish short term processes like Part 150 and airport roundtables--where the only experts in the room are on the other side of the table.Every person and home living under the flight path deserves best-practice sound insulation. It should be the small price we all pay for the benefits of the Railroad in the Sky.To get there will require a complete re-think of how we approach airport issues. It will require ongoing, expert-driven vigilance--something that can only be done with the active participation of fence-line cities; something they have been reluctant to do.But establishing an expert-driven system of accountability on sound insulation is the only way to make permanent progress on other community impacts.TopicsWhy you shouldn't attend this month's Part 150 workshopsPart 150 for DummiesSeven years after problems came to light, City of ChicagoHow the FAA engages with Airport and Community RoundtablesTo learn how you can make a difference:STNI.info/subscribeFind us on all the best podcasts, including Apple and Spotify, or subscribe via RSSApple

A 'raw' episode to show progress on one of our main goals: establishing the first true aviation-specific air quality monitoring network in the United States. We took a big step forward last week with the opening of a new station in Des Moines. Sea-Tac is the only airport in America with coverage at both ends of the flight path! Learn how we got here and why this matters for the future of research and improving the health for everyone under the flight path.Next up? A series of stories on the Sea-Tac Communities Plan, and our 2027 Legislative Agenda.TopicsNo Data, No Problem2014 Planes exhaust could be harming communities up to 10 miles from lax2016 Orwall Proposes Air Quality Study2018-2021 Mobile ObserVations of Ultrafine Particles: MOV-UP study2024 PSCAA: Update ongoing Ultrafine Monitoring2025 PSCAA Sunset Park Monitoring Site Tour2026 UWDEOHS/Des Moines AQM Site 

Part two of a 'raw' episode mangled during production.We open with news of a campaign from our partners Stay-Grounded, to ban flights between 10pm and 7am.In other news, we remind readers of just how valuable your airline customer data is--even when the airline is dead! Why it is on our Legislative Agenda for 2027.And though many people seem sure that AI is 'the future', at the same time there is an increasing movement to ban Data Centers across America.This reminds us of the backlash against airport expansion after the Second Runway here at Sea-Tac. The outcry led to the Sea-Tac Communities Plan of 1976 (STCP)--the subject of our next set of episodes.Despite some very significant concessions from the airport and the FAA, people don't remember the STCP now because there was no follow-through.The cautionary tale for airport communities across America? Never forget.Next up? A series of stories on the Sea-Tac Communities Plan, and our 2027 Legislative Agenda.

Another 'raw' episode to give people with sound insulation issues an update. We've spent so much time this year working on the SAMP you may think you're forgotten. Never.Sound insulation should be a basic right, not an after-thought.The Port of Seattle conducted a new Part 150 Study as part of the SAMP. They use that noise study to further its expansion plans. A large portion of our advocacy on the SAMP has been towards get you the relief you deserve.The Port proposed a Port Package update program in 2024 but has slow-walked the process since then. There is ongoing window-dressing and even opposition from some of the affected city councils which is beyond shameful. State Senator Tina Orwall will be putting forward new State legislation in January to help break the log jam. That is where you come in.Last year's attempt was (sorry) not great. People threw their support behind bills that had no chance of passing.In the meantime, we hear more and more from you orphans--people who bought a house that was eligible for sound insulation--before you bought it, but now is not. Many of you are in a dead zone--closer to Boeing Field, but part of the Port of Seattle's jurisdiction. This will take money from the Port, from the State, from the FAA. It can't be one or the other. Everyone must stop finger-pointing and contribute. Now.To get that done, we will need everyone's help--including you orphans--to make sure that we get right legislation proposed and then get it passed.Next up? A series of stories on the Sea-Tac Communities Plan, and our 2027 Legislative Agenda.TopicsEp. #9: Part 150 For DummiesEp. #36: OrphansSmith - Pilot Program for Sound Insulation Repair and Replacement49 U.S.C. § 47110 Allowable Project Costs2007: FAA report to Congress on the aging of sound insulation 

The SAMP NTP DEIS Comment Period is closed. A quick Thank You note. And a quick comment on something we noticed in all your comments.The only ongoing failure in airport activism is not learning from others' mistakes. Every frustration people feel today is a challenge and an opportunity. Don't give up. Learn what did not work, appreciate all the courageous people who did not know what they did not know at the time--and adjust course. They helped map the territory. That is how we find the path that gets us all where we want to go.Next up? A series of stories on the Sea-Tac Communities Plan, and our 2027 Legislative Agenda.TopicsSAMP NTP SEPA DEISThree Cities Comment Letter on SAMP NTP SEPA DEIS