New commercial airport

A new commercial airport? Not in our backyard!

The state Commercial Aviation Coordination Commission (CACC) is looking at ten sites for a commercial airport to accommodate 27 million passengers by 2050. Two of these sites are in Skagit County, one between La Conner and Mount Vernon and the other northwest of Burlington.

Racquel Muncy reported in the Skagit Valley Herald the opinions of various local experts as to why these two locations would be a poor choice for an airport. Some of them were – 86% and more of the areas in question are in the one hundred year floodplain, outstanding conservation easements exists on large parts of them, the northwest site is home to a large protected populations of bald eagles, the La Conner/ Mount Vernon site is the winter home for snow geese and Trumpeter swans, and this airport would threaten the preservation of Skagit County farmland (Skagit County produces 90% of the U.S. spinach seed crop).

Many other considerations why locating this airport in Skagit county would be a bad idea, such as endangering the Skagit River resource for fresh water and native fish, are listed on the Skagit Land Trust’s website skagitlandtrust.org.

Skagit Land Trust is asking the public to submit their comments to [email protected] by Aug. 31. On their website, there is a long list of suggested messaging points to use in your comments to the commission. They also provide a link to the virtual CACC Zoom public meeting 5:30 p.m. Aug. 31, where they believe the public may also comment.

Joyce Siniscal

La Conner