COUNTYWIDE : Court Refuses to Shut Airport Fuel Tanks

A Superior Court judge Tuesday refused to halt the operation of three jet fuel tanks at John Wayne Airport despite the potential danger of an airplane crash there, saying the shutdown would be too much of a burden on the county.

Business owners in the Koll-Irvine Center Business Park hoped to stop the airport from operating the fuel tanks while a lawsuit they have filed against the county and airlines winds its way through the courts.

But Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Bauer ruled against them and set a hearing for Feb. 11 on more motions in the lawsuit, which asks that the fuel tanks be permanently removed or drained or placed underground. They are 100 feet from the business complex.

Bauer acknowledged that the potential damage from an airplane careening into the tanks--which hold 300,000 gallons of jet fuel each--could be great. But he said he must also weigh the probability of a crash happening there against the hardship that would be caused by closing up the tanks and forcing the airport to use another method of fueling the airplanes.

One alternative, suggested by the business owners’ attorney, would be to use tanker trucks during the day to fuel the jets. This was the method used by the airport before the tanks were built last August. But Bauer concluded that solution would increase the chances of an accident, which could occur if one of the tankers collided with other trucks delivering food or baggage along the airport’s roads.

“Life is full of trade-offs,” he said.

Attorney Ronald J. Kohut, who represents the Koll-Irvine owners, said a consultant’s study shows that an explosion of the tanks from an airplane crash would create a “minimum fatality zone of 1,000 feet.”

“You’re only safe from being injured if you’re over a mile away,” Kohut said, adding that a former county fire marshal and a former Costa Mesa fire chief warned against the use of above-ground fuel tanks at the airport.

Donald Morrow, who represents the airlines operating at John Wayne, argued that the tanks are located in a “clear zone” that has been designated as one of the safer places for the tanks on airport property.

The three tanks are used alternately. One of the tanks is filled at night after the airport has closed, while the fuel in a second tank settles for 24 hours. The third tank is used to pump the fuel to the airplane terminals, using underground pipes.

The attorney for the county, Edward Duran, questioned the credibility of the study performed by the business owners’ consultant, Mike Shoeleh of Environmental Science and Technology, based in Irvine. He said Shoeleh was inexperienced in assessing risk presented by the jet fuel tank.

Bauer said he could impose an injunction against the tanks only if Koll-Irvine proved there was a high likelihood of an airplane hitting the fuel tanks.

“In the time that we’ve talked, I think it’s probable that a higher number of people died in auto accidents,” he said. Despite the danger, he said, people continue to drive their cars because of the great benefit cars provide.

“I think the judge has put an unwarranted emphasis on a mathematical probability,” said Koll-Irvine attorney Barbara Lichman after the hearing. “If an accident happens, I think we will all be very, very sorry.”