Last month, most members of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board thumbed their noses at Congress, President Obama and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. They did so concerning a recently passed law authorizing expansion of the MWAA board from 13 to 17 members. They claimed that this change in MWAA’s bistate compact cannot be implemented without ratification by the Virginia General Assembly and the D.C. Council.
This raises a basic question: Why did MWAA not seek similar ratification when former Gov. Tim Kaine unilaterally decided to transfer control of the Dulles Toll Road and responsibility for building Dulles Rail to MWAA in December 2005, an action that significantly amended provisions of the 1986 congressional act, which created the bistate MWAA compact?
In the Metropolitan Washington Airports Act of 1986, no mention is made of “off airport” activities other than reference to the Dulles Airport Access Road, which links the airport to the Capital Beltway.
The MWAA’s takeover of the Dulles Toll Road and the building of Dulles Rail were never provided for or contemplated in existing Virginia law either. Thus, it appears that MWAA acted outside its expressly provided authority.
Further, Virginia has not given specific authority for MWAA to collect Dulles Toll Road tolls at ever-escalating rates, which most view as a never-authorized tax.
A court could somehow find that building a rail line within the federally owned, 400-foot-wide Dulles Access Road’s right of way does not violate the 1986 act.
However, the two-mile detour designed to raise the potential land value of Tysons Corner by $5 to $10 billion over the next decade is clearly outside the scope of the current Airports Act.
On March 2, 1987, the U.S. secretary of transportation and the chairman of MWAA’s Board of Directors entered into a 50-year lease of Washington National and Washington Dulles International airports, later extended to 80 years.
Following execution of the lease, Virginia and the District of Columbia amended their enabling acts to conform with the terms of the Transfer Act.
The Virginia statutes included the following provision:
“Pursuant to Section 6007(b) of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Act of 1986, the Authority is established solely to operate and improve both metropolitan Washington airports as primary airports serving the metropolitan Washington area and shall be independent of the Commonwealth and its local political subdivisions, the District of Columbia and the federal government in the performance and exercise of the airport-related duties and powers enumerated in subdivisions 1 through 16 of subsection A of this section.
“Any conflict between the exercise of these enumerated powers by the Authority and the powers of any local political subdivision within which Authority Facilities are situated shall be resolved in favor of the Authority.”
More than 90 percent of projected Dulles Rail riders will be commuters or other travelers starting or ending their trips at Metrorail stations other than Dulles Airport.
By what legal theory does MWAA claim that such travel is solely for the benefit of operating and improving our Virginia airports?
The present Dulles Rail funding plan has never been subjected to a comprehensive public review and approval process even though MWAA expects Dulles Toll Road users to pay the majority of construction costs.
For Phase 2, MWAA proposes that DTR users pay 75 percent of the $3 billion-plus capital costs — a potential $10 to $15 billion in tolls over the next 50 years.
Given Dulles Rail’s lack of economic and financial feasibility, particularly the proposed Phase 2 extension into Loudoun County, it’s time for MWAA to cease its unauthorized non-airport-related activities and revert Dulles Toll Road operations and Dulles Rail construction to the commonwealth of Virginia.
Rob Whitfield is a member of the Dulles Corridor Users Group who lives in Leesburg.
