OC Register editorial
Now we know why the pro-airport majority on the Orange County Board
of Supervisors tried to approve the El Toro airport plan before the Federal
Aviation Administration released its long-expected but delayed airspace
determination study. Quite simply, the study offered little good news for
the county airport plan.
The county's head of the airport program, Gary Simon, insists the study is a vindication of the proposed airport. The FAA supports the claim that the airport is safe, he said, although some delays must be built into the air-traffic system to protect residents around the proposed airport.
This is masterful spin.
"[W]hile the proposed civilian aircraft operations at the former MCAS El Toro can be conducted in a safe manner, however, overall system efficiency in Southern California will be affected," according to the report. So, yes, it will be safe, but not efficient.
Based on estimates of 4 million annual passengers at El Toro, the FAA predicted delays ranging from several minutes to an hour on flights taking off into crowded air space north of the proposed airport. At the urging of U.S. Rep. Chris Cox, R-Newport Beach, the FAA released information over the weekend showing the impact of El Toro if operated at the 28.8-million passenger level predicted annually by 2020. The result is more bad news for county airport planners.
At the higher operating level, El Toro would delay almost every flight at nearby John Wayne and Long Beach airports, according to a Register news story. The whole region's air-traffic system would become "dysfunctional," according to Mr. Cox.
Airport supporters disputed the latest FAA 28.8-map data. A key argument they now make is the airspace throughout Southern California needs to be reconfigured soon anyway, and El Toro will greatly reduce overall delays once the reconfiguration is complete. That view was supported by U.S. Rep. John Mica, chairman of the U.S. House Aviation Subcommittee.
In an Oct. 12 letter to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Mr. Mica called El Toro "a valuable national asset with more than adequate runways, land for development and extensive buffer acreage… While Southern California airspace is congested like many other metropolitan areas in the United States, our subcommittee will be working with the FAA to ensure that airspace is redesigned."
Meanwhile, three area congressmen, Darrell Issa, Ken Calvert and Gary Miller, sent a letter last week to Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta noting the problems El Toro will raise for the region's flight traffic and asking for clarifications and further explanations of some of the specific data in the FAA airspace study.
In other words, the FAA ought to answer directly any questions about regional airspace reconfigurations and other matters before the county board gives the airport the OK.
None of this is to say that the anti-airport coalition's alternative for the former El Toro Marines base is any better. The multibillion-dollar Great Park south county politicians envision will either require massive tax hikes to make good on all the promises, or would require that much of the land lay fallow rather than be used productively.
Time for a rethinking of El Toro.
