Sound Transit: Comment Period for Draft EIS Statement for Operations and Maintenance Facility – South

Sound Transit

SEATTLE – Sound Transit has started a public comment period for Environmental Impact Statements for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the State Environmental Policy Act Supplemental Draft for the Operations and Maintenance Facility – South (OMF South).

Sound Transit has started a public comment period for Environmental Impact Statements for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the State Environmental Policy Act Supplemental Draft for the Operations and Maintenance Facility – South (OMF South). The FTA is the lead agency based on expertise and opportunities for federal funding. According to the report, a “joint NEPA/SEPA Final EIS will follow in 2024.”

Public comments provided in 2021 on the SEPA Draft EIS are still considered valid. Those do not need to be resubmitted. Sound Transit stated that it will respond to all “substantive” comments from both periods in the Final EIS. Once that is published, the Sound Transit Board “will select the project to be built,” which is anticipated to occur in the middle of next year.

Sound Transit lists the OMF South alternatives being studied below:

• Midway Landfill alternative
  • Between South 246^th Street and South 252^nd Street, between I-5 and SR 99
  • Does not include mainline connecting tracks OR a test track “because of varying grades.”
  • Site footprint: 68 acres
    
• South 336^th St. alternative – (the preferred alternative identified by the Sound Transit Board in 2021)     
  • Between South 336^th Street and South 341^st Place, between I-5 and SR 99.
  • Includes 1.4 miles of mainline light rail tracks, which would also be needed for the Tacoma Dome Link Extension light rail alignment.
  • Site footprint: 66 acres
    
• South 344^th St. alternative
  • Between South 336^th Street and South 344^th Street, between I-5 and 18^th Place South
  • Includes 1.8 miles of mainline light rail tracks, which would also be needed for the TDLE.
  • Site footprint: 64 acres
    

Since the SEPA Draft EIS in 2021, “additional preliminary engineering has further refined the alternatives.” These changes are listed below:

• For South 336^th Street, there is the addition of a test track and associated access road to the proposed site layout. According to Sound Transit, the test track “would help prepare new and existing light rail vehicles for service.”
• For the South 336^th Street preferred alternative, there would be a site reconfiguration and new street layouts, including a new entrance and fish passage improvements.

In order to support the delivery of new light rail vehicles in the 2030s, this facility is needed. 

Comments can be made via the following ways, until the comment period closes on Nov. 6, 2023:

• Online comment form, which can be found here. 
• A virtual public meeting will be held on Thursday, October 19^th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
• An in-person public meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 24^th, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Federal Way Performing Arts and Events Center in Federal Way, Washington.
• Email: [email protected]
• Call: 206-257-2141
• Mail: OMF South Project, c/o Erin Green, Sound Transit, 401 S. Jackson St., Seattle, WA, 98104

The entire Draft EIS document can also be found here.