Letters to the editor for Oct. 5
No airport in Central Thurston
I am an Army veteran, state employee, and first-time homeowner living with my family in the Sunwood Lakes neighborhood near the center of the Central Thurston County greenfield the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC) is considering to recommend as a site for a new commercial airport.
My wife and I bought our house here six years ago and have poured our souls, dreams, energy, and savings into it, thinking we’d have a secure and stable place to live far into our retirement years. We are deeply disturbed that the CACC is considering our area on its final list of potential airport sites to recommend to the legislature. Selecting this site would devastate hundreds of mostly working-class families at Sunwood Lakes by forcing us to move.
Our modest homes and parks are nestled among tranquil greenbelts that provide habitat for many animals. Our lakes, ponds, and wetlands around the Spurgeon Creek Watershed Basin also provide habitat, including for the threatened Olympia pocket gopher. Our area also sits on top of the McCallister Groundwater Sensitive Area near McAllister Wellfield, which supplies about 85 percent of Olympia’s drinking water.
Disturbing this area with an airport would have deep human and environmental health impacts. Our lakes and numerous nearby areas also present high groundwater hazards identified by the county that also make the area undesirable for an airport. These issues will be amplified by traffic congestion, airplane exhaust emissions, loud noise, light pollution, and population growth.
Save Thurston. Stop the airport.
Paul Karolczyk, Olympia
Shameful lack of coverage for U.S. Women’s Gold Medal run
The Olympian’s lack of coverage of the U.S. Women’s 4th straight World Cup gold medal run was disappointing. The U.S. team has won 11 gold medals with extreme dominance — winning this year’s games by an average of 40.8 points. They have won 30 consecutive World Cup match ups.
Your coverage of this epic event was relegated to page 9 in Sunday’s edition — with NO photos. The rest of the Sports section was replete with photos and stories about the Mariners, Seahawks and various college football teams/players. The lack of media attention to the U.S. Women’s basketball team is as insulting as it is regrettable.
The obvious focus on male-dominated sports teams continues to plague the media, contributing to the ongoing disparity in pay between male and female professional athletes. The lingering effects seem obvious. Young female athletes are continually denied the opportunity to see and read about these amazing role models. Consequently, the possibilities for inspiration are limited and totally inadequate, in no small part due to the alarming disparity of media focus.
This includes the tepid coverage of our own Seattle Storm basketball team. They remain highly successful; yet the newspaper coverage of their victories is nearly non-existent.
There is a much larger issue of gender and pay equity in professional sports. Is it too much to ask that our local media outlets shed a spotlight on what these amazing female athletes accomplish?
Karen E. Schoessel, Olympia
State Building Code Council should adopt electrification proposals
My 2-year-old daughters were born in the summer of 2020. When my wife and I brought them home from the hospital, we were confronted with an unexpected choice: Do we keep the windows in our home open or shut? In the midst of yet another heat wave, our small home felt like an oven, but the air outside, choked with the smoke from yet more wildfires, was unhealthy to breath.
This choice — unbearable heat versus unbreathable air — has repeated itself every summer since, and will continue, with each decade hotter and harder to live in than the last. That is, unless we take swift action now by using tools we already have to ward off the worse effects of climate change.
This year, the State Building Code Council had the opportunity to do precisely that — by approving proposed amendments to the Residential Energy Code. Two of these proposals would require new construction to use heat pumps for water and spacing heating.
These amendments are critical: nearly a quarter of Washington’s emissions come from buildings, and developing more houses that rely on fossil fuels locks in rising carbon emissions for decades to come. Heat pumps provide a cost-effective solution, lowering utility bills, avoiding the indoor pollutants caused by gas-burning appliances, and providing relief to children and other vulnerable populations in the summer months.
The SBCC has the chance to make our homes investments in a healthy and resilient future. As a parent of young children, I hope SBCC does so.
Michael Christopher Bradley, Olympia