Charlotte Persons and Betsy Norton
On May 18 the Port of Olympia withdrew the Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance (MDNS) for the 2021 Olympia Airport Master Plan Update. This means that our appeal is over!
In July 2025 South Sound Bird Alliance (SSBA) and our seven community co-appellants filed an appeal of the environmental analysis approval (SEPA MDNS decision) for the 2021 Update to the Olympia Airport Master Plan. Over the next twenty years the updated plan’s increased airport operations would have had significant negative environmental effects on air and water quality. In addition, the Update would have industrialized critical habitat for two species listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In December 2025 the hearing examiner decided in our favor—the environmental analysis was inadequate. SSBA and the other appellants have been waiting for the Port of Olympia’s response. The Port could have chosen one of a number of options to create a new environmental assessment of the Update. Instead, the Port withdrew the MDNS, which effectively ended the appeal.
We appreciate all the work for the appeal put in by our lawyers, Claudia Newman and Zachary Griefen of Bricklin & Newman, LLP, and our expert witnesses, such as William Vogel of Larch Environmental. We also thank the community members who gave testimony before the Hearing Examiner and Conservation Committee members who helped us with research, writing and editing.
In addition, we recognize the ending of this appeal is the result of years of effort by residents and community organizations in response to the 2021 Olympia Airport Master Plan Update and the draft SEPA checklist. They helped publicize the Update and galvanized residents to give public testimony before the Port Commissioners. We also benefitted from over twenty years of community organizing around airport development issues led by the late Sue Danver and other community members.
However, the end of our appeal is only a temporary pause. We expect a new plan and/or new project proposals will be emerging for the Olympia Airport and the Port’s nearby properties. Additionally, the Bush-Prairie Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) is still being negotiated by Tumwater, the Port and the local US Fish and Wildlife regional office. This HCP is a program to prevent extinction of threatened species while enabling development on the Bush Prairie (City of Tumwater and Tumwater Urban Growth Area).
We will be monitoring airport development and the creation of the HCP as we continue to advocate for ESA listed species and conservation of habitat.
Detail on the Appeal of the MDNS
The 2021 Airport Master Plan Update at full buildout would have eliminated nearly half the property’s habitat for the ESA listed Olympia Pocket Gopher (OPG), prairie habitat shared with the listed Streaked Horned Lark. The combined industrial buildout and commercial expansion was planned to include the Swire lease for a Coca Cola plant on a large section of OPG habitat on the airport property.
In addition, the proposed increase in airport activities would have had other negative environmental effects:
- More air and noise pollution that would impact nearby residents
- Increased risks to groundwater and surface water quality through spills and tire rubber dust containing 6PPD from large truck fleets
- Consumption of large quantities of groundwater – robbing the Deschutes River of the underground seeps required to keep its water cool enough to support salmon.
We did not directly challenge the 2021 Olympia Airport Master Plan Update. We challenged the Port’s approval of the analysis of environmental impacts from the Update. The analysis was performed under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). The Port’s approval of that analysis is the Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance. In essence the MDNS said there would be so little impact to listed species and the environment that the plan could move forward with minimal mitigation.
As part of our appeal, SSBA sponsored the testimony of two expert witnesses—a hydrogeologist and a biologist—in line with our commitment to advocacy and action based on the best available science.
We will keep you updated on future threats to listed species and habitat. We welcome any help or tips from all of you in our birding community.
For more information on the appeal, you can go to the webpage for Project No. SEPA 25-01, under the webpage for the Olympia Airport Master Plan Update at https://airport.portolympia.com/airport-master-plan/?_gl=1*pt36ci*_ga*MTE2MTU0NTY4MC4xNzc5MzE2NjUx*_ga_JHDQTB8E1B*czE3NzkzMTY2NTAkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzkzMTY2NTAkajYwJGwwJGgw&_ga=2.149260022.1148508847.1779316651-1161545680.1779316651
For information on the risk that 6PPD in tire dust poses to Coho salmon and other aquatic species, see https://ecology.wa.gov/waste-toxics/reducing-toxic-chemicals/reducing-toxic-chemicals-washington/6ppd
For information on high temperatures and other problems in the Deschutes River, see
Photo credit: Streaked-horned-lark-Rich-Szlemp-USFWS.jpg, Richard Szlemp/USFWS, Public Domain, https://www.fws.gov/media/streaked-horned-lark-rich-szlemp-usfwsjpg
