Shuttling Between Airport Opinions

* Has anybody really read the Airport Development Report concerning turning El Toro into a commercial airport? The airlines don’t want it, the pilots associations don’t want it, and the FAA doesn’t want it and for very good reasons.

There are so many operational problems with this airport it borders on the absurd. El Toro will be a very restrictive airport because of the proximity of mountains, preventing approaches from the east or north. The report proposes taking off to the east on Runway 07 and landing from the south on Runway 34. These are intersecting runways and both are uphill.

Runway 07, the primary departure runway, has an uphill slope of 1.6%. While this is not a problem for overpowered military aircraft, it exceeds the FAA maximum of 1.5% for airline operation. To bring this runway into compliance, they propose raising the west end of the runway 16 feet and lowering the east end 16 feet.

All runways have cracks and the report recommends that they be repaired and strengthened. However they do admit this might not work and total demolition of all runways may be necessary. All of this is in addition to the $1.6 billion to be spent for the infrastructure.

A solution to this problem is one that is never mentioned: Expand John Wayne Airport. By extending the runway to 10,000 feet and eliminating the departure and arrival restrictions you will create an airport that will be the equivalent of El Toro. And the infrastructure is already in place.

F. DALE LANG

Mission Viejo

* The best possible use for the existing El Toro airport is a commercial Orange County airport. The runways and other ancillary structures are already there, and it is currently a functioning airport. Replace all those noisy, dirty, military aircraft with quiet, new generation commercial aircraft. It is a move that will enhance the economic growth of our county and offer a positive solution to the needs of the entire county. Orange County’s growing air traffic demands cannot be handled by John Wayne Airport.

GENE A. SULLIVAN

Orange

* Norm Ewers’ pro-El Toro airport letter (Oct. 27) was based on a serious factual error. He claimed that of Irvine’s more than 60,000 registered voters, only 7,755 cared enough to vote in last spring’s countywide airport ballot. Wrong! The number 7,755 is the number of citizens who voted absentee in Irvine. The total number of Irvine citizens voting in the March 26th Measure S election was 26,769. Of these, 18,763 voted Yes on S against the airport.

Like most South Orange County communities, Irvine has consistently voted in sizable numbers--and by large majorities of 70% or more--against the proposed El Toro International Airport.

LARRY AGRAN

Former Mayor of Irvine

Chair-Project ’99

* Supervisor Roger Stanton complained about the strident tone of Irvine Mayor Mike Ward’s opposition to the El Toro Airport as election year posturing (“Planners Say El Toro Report Is Best It Can Be,” Oct. 25)

Stanton apparently does not “get it.” Ward is simply reflecting the mood of his constituency. Stanton forgets that South County is replete with boomers who went to college during the Vietnam conflict and who have certainly not forgotten the methods used to change an unpopular government policy.

If the supervisors persist in trying to ramrod an airport into an unreceptive South County, their legacy will be one of demonstrations, civil disobedience and, ultimately, secession of the southern cities.

DAN SUMMERL

South Laguna

* Inexplicably, one of the most important elements in determining the future development of El Toro has been all but absent from public debate and only marginally addressed in the county’s draft environment impact report.

The El Toro base is a federal Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site, which means it is a locus of hazardous and toxic materials and waste that are a danger to public health and safety on and off site.

Ongoing contamination of local ground water is serious, will get no better under current conditions and threatens a local potable water supply of incalculable value in our semi-arid region. Volatile organic compounds, mercury, lead, PCBs, benzene and other cancer-causing and birth defect-producing poisons are present in solid waste landfills, former fuel dumps, engine cleaning pits and more.

Only in our dreams will the federal government--although it is responsible for the environmental cleanup and obliged to pay for it--accomplish this task by the time the Marines leave in 1999. To grasp the magnitude of the problem Orange County has on its hands with the “gift” of this military detritus, one need only consider that of the thousands of Superfund sites already identified in the country, less than 3% have been fully reclaimed.

If a serious cleanup is to be completed and the flow of contaminates into neighboring ground water halted, certain areas of the base currently planned for airport construction will have to be accessible to testing, evacuation and pumping for a prolonged period. Only diversified and modular development, which can proceed incrementally, will make this 4,700-acre sow’s ear into a silk purse for our county.

MARION PACK

Executive Director

Alliance for Survival

Santa Ana