KIRO NEWSRADIO OPINION

Gee Scott: “Throw out the Sea-Tac lawsuit!”

Apr 20, 2023, 11:19 AM | Updated: 2:46 pm

SeaTac...

Rainy evening at the SeaTac airport in Seattle, WA. (Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Gee Scott claimed the class-action lawsuit against SeaTac Airport and some airlines should “be thrown out of court.”

The case accuses the defendants of knowingly spewing harmful pollutants creating health issues for people living in nearby communities.

“If that shows up to my courtroom, I’m throwing it out as fast as it comes in,” Gee said on KIRO Newsradio’s Gee & Ursula Show. “And the reason why is, we wake up every single morning knowing what’s going on around the airport. We know all of the things that we’re dealing with.”

Lawsuit against Port of Seattle, Alaska, Delta alleges toxic pollutants

Gee said that there are pollutants all around us and used the example of emissions from vehicles. He also brought up food.

“We know that the foods that we’re eating have chemicals. If you remember the chicken that you used to buy at the grocery store, remember what your chicken looked like in 1980 compared to what it looks like in 2023. How about them fat strawberries the size of my head?”

Ursula Reutin pointed out that “the lawsuit argues the port went ahead with construction of a new international arrivals facility” despite pollution issues.

She also said the new concourse is supposed to double international passenger capacity.

Ursula outlined that “there have been studies done. And I looked at some of the University of Washington studies, and now they haven’t directly said that airport pollution is the direct cause [of health issues], but they have identified that there is airport pollution. There’s also pollution from your cars. There’s pollution from what’s inside your building. And there’s pollution everywhere.”

Ursula said it would be very difficult to prove that airport pollution is the direct cause of certain diseases.

“Look, this might be hard to prove, but it also might be true,” Producer Andrew “Chef” Lanier said. “It took decades for State Attorneys General to hold cigarette companies to account because it is incredibly difficult to prove multifactorial environmental issues as a root cause of, say, your cancer.”

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The group all agreed that this lawsuit will be cited in any plans to build a second major airport in the area.

“I want to point out that 300,000 people live within the five-mile area of Sea-Tac, and the lead attorney on the case says he’s hoping for remediation from the port,” Ursula said.

“I just want to know what they are doing to the strawberries,” Gee exclaimed.

Listen to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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