May 27, 1998
The Honorable James Hinchman
Acting Comptroller General of the
United States
General Accounting Office
Room 7125
411 G Street NW
Washington, DC 10001-2648
Dear Mr. Hinchman,
The purpose of this letter is to share with you my concern regarding the possible failure of the Port of Seattle to adhere to federal grant requirements and no request an investigation of this charge.
My concern revolves around the use of federal funds for the Port of Seattle's noise remedy programs and their apparent failure to comply with federal grant requirements. Federal Grant Assurance C.6 requires that the representative government, the cities surrounding SeaTac Airport in this case, provide written assurance in support of the port's Part 150 Noise Remedy Program before the port can proceed. It is in question whether the port received this assurance.
My understanding is that currently, the Port of Seattle does not have any monitoring controls in place to insure that written declarations of support for noise compatibility projects are obtained from agencies having jurisdictional control where these projects are located. As a result, no such written declarations were obtained for any of the Port's noise compatibility projects. I believe that this may be a violation of the Federal Grant Assurance C.6 requirement mentioned above.
Enclosed please find a letter from a constituent expressing her thoughts and a number of exhibits which detail these possible violations. One of these exhibits is a report from Deloitte and Touche who performed numerous consultant audits and repeatedly brought this discrepancy to the Port's attention. Please feel free to contact Amy Rubie in my District Office if you should have any questions regarding this situation. She can be reached at (253) 926-6683.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention in this matter.
Sincerely,
Adam Smith
Member of Congress
C.6. Consistency with Local Plans. The projects is reasonably consistent with plans (existing at the time of submission of this application) of public agencies that are authorized by the State in which the project is located to plan for the development of the area surrounding the airport. For noise compatibility program projects, other than land acquisition to be carried out on property not owned by the airport and over which property another agency has land use control or authority, the sponsor shall obtain from each such agency a written declaration that such agency supports that project and the project is reasonably consistent with the agency's plans regarding the property.