The Port of Seattle and the King County Housing Authority agreed last week to delay the transfer of the Lora Lake Apartments pending the outcome of environmental testing at the affordable housing complex.

The sale of the property from the port to housing authority, which is located inside the city limits less than a thousand feet from the third runway at Sea-Tac International Airport, had been set to close Feb. 29.

All units at Lora Lake have been vacant since summer 2007.

"The port and the King County Housing Authority are working with the state Department of Ecology through the Voluntary Cleanup Program to complete the environmental investigation work," said Mark Reis, managing director of the airport.

The port operates the airport.

"We are committed to working with the port to take the time necessary to properly evaluate the findings," added Stephen Norman, executive director of housing authority.

The site was used for commercial and industrial purposes from the 1920s to the mid-1980s. In the 1950s, it was an auto wrecking yard.

The apartments were constructed and owned by a private developer in the late 1980s. The site was investigated and cleaned up before the apartments were built, but recent underground testing of soil and groundwater has shown contamination below the paved surface of the site.

In 1998 the port purchased the Lora Lake property because one-third of the apartment complex was located within the runway protection zone of the new third runway. FAA regulations required that those units be demolished.

Burien subsequently amended its comprehensive land-use plan to facilitate commercial development north of the third runway to give the city a needed economic boost.

The port planned to demolish the apartment buildings and use the property for commercial or industrial purposes in conjunction with the city.

Delays in the airport project prompted Burien, the port, and the King County Housing Authority to transfer ownership of Lora Lake to the housing authority and allow the apartments to be reoccupied on a temporary basis.

That agreement called for the complex to be returned to the port by mid-2005.

Further delays in construction of the third runway then led to a two-year extension of the agreement with the housing authority in 2004.

The three-party contractual agreement called for Lora Lake to be returned to the port in July 2007 when all residents were again relocated.

Last August, however, shortly before demolition was to begin, the housing authority - backed by King County and low-income housing advocates - sued the port and Burien and was granted an injunction against the demolition of the apartments.

Since then, the port and housing authority have been working to transfer the property back to housing authority

Before final transfer, routine testing was conducted by the port at the Lora Lake property, with samples taken at seven and 14 feet below ground.

Results, which came in recently, showed that the chemicals found included by-products of fuels and waste burning, including dioxin and petroleum hydrocarbons.