OUR MISSION

The Seaplanes Environmental Coalition (SEC) was formed in the 1980’s to raise the awareness of the environmental and life-safety challenges of the rapidly growing and unregulated seaplane traffic on Lake Union, Seattle.

Our coalition represents a diverse group of maritime and commercial businesses, urban recreational enterprises and adjacent residential communities who wish to ensure that Lake Union remains a working lake and a natural resource for use by all but with domination by none.

Last year’s August 2019 letter from Kenmore Air to the City of Seattle addressed their public safety challenges during the summertime peak-use-hours from Friday through Sunday after 3:00PM. The letter was a wake-up call for our community because the default solution proposed was a 400-foot-wide by 5,000-foot-long dedicated seaplane runway down the middle of the lake. If this had come to pass it would have had devastating impacts on the use and viable operation for all other Lake Union stake-holders and users.

As Seattle has grown so has the demand for scenic and commuter seaplane flights. Seaplanes are an iconic part of our city and provide a valuable service to the Pacific Northwest. In the 1970’s there were 3 or 4 flights per day on Lake Union. By 1989 there were 40 fights per day. In 2019, Kenmore Air alone averaged 80 flights a day - that’s a flight every 8 minutes out of a busy lake used by the maritime industries, boaters, kayakers and other users. And this traffic does not include new flights by Harbor Air, the Canadian firm now partnering with Kenmore to serve the rapidly growing demand for harbor to harbor commutes between Vancouver, BC and Seattle.

In 2019, our Coalition (SEC) launched the viral Save Lake Union internet campaign in response to Kenmore’s request that habor police sweep its runway or that the center of the lake to be a dedicated, off-limits runway. The campaign was featured on the front page of The Seattle Times after gathering 2,000 petition signatures overnight. This campaign successfully terminated discussions about a dedicated seaplane runway on Lake Union that would have divided the lake in two severely impacting all other users.

Our mission today is to partner with Kenmore Air, the City and Port of Seattle, and the Department of Natural Resources to license an alternative, centrally-located open body of water for seaplane use during the summertime peak-use-hours (after 3PM Fridays through Sundays) when flights on Lake Union are a hazard to public safety and a liability to Kenmore’s operation.