Cheers at anti-airport town hall in Graham, but concerns persist over proposed facility

Two state lawmakers gave hundreds of people reasons to cheer at an anti-airport town hall Friday night in Graham.

Rep. Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, told the crowd that he was impressed by the turnout in a packed common area at Graham-Kapowsin High School. More than 500 people had signed visitor logs.

“I don’t think you should have to be here tonight,” he said.

With myriad issues facing the prospects that either of three greenfield sites — two in Pierce County and one in Thurston County — could potentially house the region’s next major airport, Fey made it clear that he was opposed to siting a facility near people who have been organizing against the state-led site-selection process for months.

He cited concerns that others presented in detail Friday, including potential effects to the Nisqually River watershed, air pollution, infrastructure issues and conflicts with land-use policies on growth management. The event was organized by the Coalition Against Graham and Eatonville-Roy Airports.

“I can’t find a good reason to pursue this any further at these three sites,” Fey said, garnering one of the loudest cheers of the night.

He and Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, were among several lawmakers in attendance, and both are working on Dent’s bill, expected to be introduced by the end of next week, that Dent has said will re-start the site selection process that has been the task of the state-created Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission since 2019.

“What has happened here is wrong,” Dent said, adding that his legislation would add different parameters to the process.

It would be effective immediately, negating the commission’s current timeline of recommending a single site by June, Fey said.

Outside the town hall, people said they were encouraged by what they heard, including from activists who detailed strong concerns about an airport’s effect on flooding, salmon and wetlands and explained a potential deal-killer related to federal restrictions on incompatible development near military installations.

Bruce Leonard, 68, who lives in Roy, recalled similar waves of opposition, meetings and promises in the mid-1990s when the community rallied against a proposed landfill nearby. Its eventual green light gave him pause about what could still come of airport deliberations.

“We heard the same thing about the dump and this is so much bigger than the dump,” he said.

Marc and Renee Fisher described being somewhat hopeful now that they have seen involvement from a broader coalition than just the community. Like many, they said they only heard about the CACC’s considerations a few months ago.

“We never thought it would be here,” Renee Fisher said.