Project '99 Newsletter, March 1998
A Plan of Action to Protect and Improve Our Community
At the end of March, the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority (ETRPA) — the 7-city South County anti-airport authority — will submit its official non-aviation reuse plan to the Orange County Board of Supervisors and to the Department of the Navy.
The plan is expected to draw largely on Project 99’s own reuse study, A Real Choice for a Better Future, which was officially presented to ETRPA on February 23rd by Karen Byers, Project 99’s Director of Communications. A Real Choice for a Better Future emphasizes the early introduction of a number of popular and productive non-aviation reuses at El Toro: a vast 1500-acre metropolitan park, like San Diego’s Balboa Park, with revenue-generating museums and cultural attractions; colleges and universities; and a job-rich high-tech research and development complex.
Lake Forest City Council- member Richard Dixon, who is Chairman of ETRPA, praised Project 99’s work. Both Byers and Dixon noted that Project 99 and ETRPA have been partners in developing a reuse plan that is environmentally and economically superior to the County’s plan. The County’s plan calls for a huge international airport at El Toro, adjoined by non-aviation uses that County officials claim will create a friendly “Airport Community.”
Byers dismissed the County’s “Airport Community” as foolish and unworkable. She asked, “Who would want to go to a movie or a cultural event next to a busy airport? What parent would send a son or daughter to a college under a flight path? What grandparent would take a child on a nature walk where departing aircraft are just a few hundred feet overhead?”
Byers continued: “Who would build a hospital where the roar of jet engines is an around-the-clock reality? Who would play golf next to a runway where giant jetliners and cargo aircraft are landing?” She concluded: “Anybody with an ounce of sense knows that the idea of putting these land uses next to a busy airport is ridiculous.”
Project 99 Information Proves Accurate…Again
It was bound to happen: For months, newspaper columnists and editorial writers have been blasting County officials for their slipshod work and mindless promotion of El Toro International Airport. Stung by the criticism, these same County officials are now lashing out at airport opponents, claiming anti-airport activists are publishing “misinformation.” The problem with the County is that its high-priced cheerleaders for El Toro have got their facts wrong . . . again.
In the February 8, 1998 Times (Orange County), Courtney Wiercioch (pronounced WEER-chuck), the County’s El Toro Airport project director, asserted that Project 99’s map of proposed takeoff and landing patterns contains “misinformation.” When pressed for specifics by Times reporter Lorenza Munoz, apparently Wiercioch came up empty-handed — except to say that the Orange County Supervisors once adopted a non-binding resolution claiming they didn’t really want to see takeoffs (or landings) on the westerly runway over Irvine.
What Wiercioch conveniently ignored was the official public record, “certified” by the Supervisors, which is replete with references to westerly (Runway 25) takeoffs and landings for air cargo and passenger jets at El Toro. On May 13, 1996, the 44,000-member Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) wrote to County officials, warning against the County’s reliance on dangerous easterly and northerly takeoffs — uphill takeoffs toward the Santa Ana Mountains, complicated by strong tailwinds. ALPA concluded that takeoffs to the west over Irvine would be safest. (ALPA kept open the ques-tion of whether aircraft would bank left toward the coast or take a straight westerly route over John Wayne Airport, which could eventually be closed to commercial aircraft.)
The County’s official MCAS El Toro Community Reuse Plan (Appendix C — Airport Development Report), published as a July 15, 1996 Revised Final Draft, includes numerous references to westerly takeoffs and landings (pages 88, 89 and 93). This same technical information was re-affirmed in the massive MCAS El Toro Environmental Impact Report No. 563, adopted by the Board of Supervisors on December 11, 1996.
County officials can say whatever they like
about the multiple takeoff and landing patterns at El Toro. But the politically-inspired
rhetoric and resolutions coming out of the County Hall of Administration
count for little — and County officials know it. The fact of the matter
is that once runways are operational for commercial aircraft, it will be
the individual airline pilots — not air traffic controllers and certainly
not the County Board of Supervisors — who have the final word in choosing
the safest runway for a takeoff or landing (FAA Air Traffic Control manual
— FAA Document No. 7110.65J, July 20, 1995, cited at page 86 of the County’s
MCAS El Toro Community Reuse Plan, Appendix C). By law, pilots will choose
runways based on wind conditions and related safety considerations, not
based on politics.
Project ’99 is a special project of the
Tides Center, a duly registered public charity. Donations to Project ’99/Tides
Center are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Project ’99 Newsletter Director of Communications, Karen Byers Director of Media, Alan Ellstrand
Project ’99 • PO Box 252 • Irvine CA 92650 • Phone (714) 559-5423