County Hit With Tough Questions on El Toro Impact

Orange County’s lengthy environmental review of a proposed El Toro airport drew hundreds of responses, including many demanding answers to questions about impacts on safety, traffic, pollution and noise.

One of the most critical responses came from the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of eight South County cities opposed to an airport at El Toro.

“After spending more than $40 million on an unworkable airport, the county has handed us a 10,000-page description of a fatally flawed airport plan,” said Susan Withrow, a Mission Viejo councilwoman and the coalition chair.

There were about 300 responses in all, with many raising questions about the validity of the county’s environmental analysis. Under the review process, planners must respond to each question and comment. Then the Board of Supervisors will vote--possibly as early as June--whether to approve the environmental document.

The concerns raised by the public come just days before voters go to the polls March 7 to decide the fate of Measure F.

If it passes, Measure F will halt airport planning. It calls for the approval of two-thirds of countywide voters before projects such as airports, large jails or hazardous waste landfills could be built near residential communities.

The bulk of the responses were critical of the county’s conclusions about how much environmental damage would be caused by the airport, which is being designed to serve 28.8 million passengers a year by 2020.

County officials contend that most noise and traffic generated by the airport can be reduced around the 4,700-acre base, which closed in July. But some noise and pollution cannot be mitigated to the point that it becomes insignificant, the report concluded.

County officials said they were surprised they did not receive more questions. An earlier environmental study on the airport in 1996 generated 1,500 queries, officials said.

“Obviously, [the review] was a very well-thought-out, detailed analysis and answered a number of questions right off the bat,” El Toro spokesman John Christensen said.

Some of the comments filed with the county applauded the environmental review. The Orange County Regional Airport Authority, which represents cities that want an airport developed at El Toro, said the county is responding to a growing regional demand for increased air travel and taking steps to protect nearby residents from noise.

In an analysis that spanned more than 500 pages, the coalition of South County cities that oppose the airport faulted the county’s estimates for future air travel demands, as well as its traffic analysis, which assumes that no major freeway improvements would be needed.

It also accused the county of analyzing air pollution using a methodology that has twice been rejected by a San Diego County judge who reviewed earlier studies.

The coalition is pushing an alternative plan for the base that would involve a mix of homes, businesses and open space.

Additionally, safety issues raised for the past six years by two pilots groups about the layout of the airport need to be adequately addressed, the coalition said.

The groups--the Air Line Pilots Assn., which the nation’s largest pilots union, and the Allied Pilots Assn., which represents American Airlines pilots--repeated their earlier concerns in separate responses to the county.