Cargo Hub Plan for Reno Faces Possible Delay

RENO, Nev. —  Opponents of a proposed West Coast air cargo hub at the Reno airport have picked up some unlikely support.

Airport attorneys say the U.S. Postal Service will need to conduct an environmental study before the facility can open. And that could jeopardize the planned Aug. 28 start-up date.

People who live near the airport don’t want the hub because it not only will add new flights in and out of the airport, but will mean planes leaving early in the morning.

The hub operator would have seven planes taking off five nights a week between 12:30 a.m. and 2 a.m.

Postal service lawyers say they’re doing their own legal analysis of the agency’s obligation under the National Environmental Policy Act and probably will have an answer today.

Airport neighbors have been angry since the airport authority and the postal service first sat down together in April and agreed that the hub would move from Oakland into a temporary facility at Reno.

The airport authority plans to build the postal service a permanent hub in three years.

“They will not operate here if our attorneys don’t feel comfortable that they have complied with NEPA,” airport authority Executive Director Krys Bart said.

She traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this week to meet with postal officials and ask whether they agree that they have to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and, if so, whether they are complying with it.