Still Arguing Over the Plane Facts

The El Toro airport is a $4-billion gift to the county. Some want the gift and some do not. Supervisor Tom Wilson does not and that is OK. However, using his office to mail out lies and distortions to scare residents about the El Toro airport is wrong.

I am a pilot who uses John Wayne Airport weekly and owns a building and business under its approach path one mile from the runway.

Wilson states in his November newsletter, the El Toro Report: “Typically, planes used by cargo carriers are the oldest, noisiest, most polluting and least safe planes in use today.” The opposite is true. United Parcel Service and Federal Express have the newest, safest and shiniest Boeings and Airbuses at John Wayne.

“Air cargo is an overnight operation,” Wilson says. Again, not true for El Toro. Cargo planes would have to leave El Toro early in the evening to make connection in hubs like Memphis and Louisville for next-day deliveries. Freight operators have no problems meeting curfew at John Wayne and would not at El Toro.

Wilson states that 10 proposed “noise test flights” at El Toro would prove nothing. The truth is that very few residents around El Toro would hear a sound from these very quiet planes, a fact most people against El Toro would like to keep quiet.

The departure end of the airport is almost 100% rural and mountainous. On approach, a plane’s throttles are near idle, making little noise, even for a person directly under the flight path. Opposing El Toro is a shame; lying about its effects and using taxpayers’ money to do so is a damn shame.

DON DE VRIES

Irvine

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Even with the disappointing results of [the Nov. 3 election for supervisor], local residents are more determined to get a non-aviation plan pushed through so our quality of life is not destroyed.

I look forward to the day when we can say we made a difference and preserved the quality of life in Orange County for future generations.

Millennium Plan vs. airport: When will we let Orange County decide the future?

ANDREW MAY

Lake Forest

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Regarding complaints about pollution if El Toro becomes a commercial airport:

You can stand 300 feet behind a jet aircraft at idle and feel no heat from the exhaust. It goes straight up.

Claims that all pollution in Newport Harbor comes from the jets flying out of John Wayne Airport are false. Most of the pollution comes from surface craft, underwater exhaust and surface fumes, including fog saturated with some fume particles.

I would recommend that [those worried about pollution], instead of just being against El Toro as an airport, concentrate efforts on diesel-burning cars, trucks and buses.

For 15 years the county has been searching for an augmentation to John Wayne’s one 5,700-foot runway, 500 acres and no noise buffer zone. Out of the blue comes El Toro with its two 10,000-foot and two 8,000-foot runways, 4,700 acres, and 18,000 acres of noise buffer zone.

E.H. WINCHESTER SR.

Santa Ana

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Although Jim Silva’s defeat of Dave Sullivan for Orange County supervisor is a setback for those Orange County residents who oppose an airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, it is not a message from the voters that they are pro-airport.

The passing of Measure D in Irvine and the support for Sullivan indicates that residents are united in their opposition to an airport. On this issue Silva appears to be a puppet for a few wealthy developers who stand to make a lot of money on real estate they own around the base.

Unfortunately, these individuals refuse to recognize the financial and quality-of-life benefits a non-airport plan would have on the county and therefore on the value of their properties.

A plan such as the Millennium Plan, which would include business and technology centers, museums, golf courses, parks and recreation areas, education facilities and other uses, would secure Orange County’s position as one of the most desirable places to live, do business and visit in California and the nation.

Those of us who opposed Silva’s reelection as supervisor looked to Sullivan as a strong candidate who would kill plans for an airport that will adversely impact the lives of the residents, property values and future of Orange County.

We will not give up on this issue. Since elections in the early 1990s that approved an airport, residents and business have moved into south Orange County, one of the only areas the county can expand. There is more money and more opposition to an airport now. We will put the issue back on the ballot and it will be defeated.

BRAD SCHREIBER

Newport Beach