SANDER Passes FAA Test With Flying Colors

The controversial waste-to-energy plant proposed for San Diego received what proponents say is a significant boost this week when federal officials concluded that its stack would pose no hazard to air traffic.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday issued a final “determination of no hazard” for the 197-foot stack of the planned San Diego Energy Recovery Project (SANDER), the giant garbage burner planned for Kearny Mesa.

Officials of Signal Environmental Systems, the firm hoping to build the plant, characterized the federal decision as the first “permit” issued for SANDER and a crucial prerequisite for final approval by the California Energy Commission.

“The FAA’s positive decision is an important step as we move toward final project approvals,” Frank Mazanec of Signal said in a statement released Thursday. “We will continue to work with other government agencies . . . to ensure that SANDER poses no hazard of any sort to San Diegans.”

One leader of the opposition, however, minimized the significance of the determination.

“This is going to bring the pollution closer to earth,” said Janet Brown, a founder of the anti-SANDER group, Citizens Advocating a Safe Environment. “We’re not concerned with the height of the stack. We’re concerned with what’s coming out of the stack.”

The stack, to be located slightly more than a mile north of Montgomery Field and south of Miramar Naval Air Station, would be considered an obstruction under federal rules. For that reason, the FAA study examined the effect it might have on air traffic.

According to FAA documents released by Signal, the agency concluded that the stack “would not penetrate a plane of altitude 300 feet beneath the established . . . traffic pattern altitudes at Montgomery Field.” Nor would it harm instrument flight operations or impair signals used by aircraft, the FAA found.

“Although the . . . emission stack has not been identified as an obstruction, the study results conclude the proposal would not adversely affect the safe and efficient use of the navigable airspace and would not be a hazard to air navigation,” the FAA stated.

However, the agency said the stack would have to be marked and lighted in keeping with federal rules.

An Energy Commission representative confirmed Thursday that the federal OK is a prerequisite for approval by the commission, the state board formed to consolidate the permit processes of the numerous federal, state and local agencies involved.

“This would have been an element, and probably one of the principal elements, of the (commission) staff’s inquiry to the feds,” Garret Shean, the hearing officer on the case, said of the FAA’s hazard determination.

If approved by the commission and the City Council, the SANDER plant would incinerate 2,250 tons of trash a day and would generate enough electricity for 60,000 homes. It is being promoted as an answer to San Diego’s problem of a declining amount of landfill space.

However, groups like Brown’s have opposed the plant, saying too little is known about the effects of its emissions on public health. Regional air-pollution control officials say the plant would be one of San Diego’s biggest polluters.

Shean said Thursday that the commission hopes to make a final decision on the plant by late December. He said the staff would make its recommendation to the commission members about three or four months before that.