Another Dirty El Toro Secret

Pollution has been one of the most elusive and yet debated concerns about a new airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. That air quality is something people pay attention to is a fact of daily life in Southern California. The hazards were underscored by recent research indicating that air pollution is harmful not only to the lungs, but also to the heart.

Recently, county officials released a revised version of their 1996 environmental impact report for a new airport at El Toro. It was reissued because a judge had found earlier pronouncements inadequate. The new study is more forthcoming, and adds some new important information to the debate. Officials now concede that the proposed airport could cause “significant” air pollution that “cannot be mitigated.”

The new finding is significant on several levels. Perhaps most important, clean air--or at least the perception of cleaner air than in other parts of the Los Angeles basin--is a big factor in many people’s decision to live in Orange County in the first place. That this might change is a component of the quality-of-life concern with having a big new international airport set down in the midst of a mature suburban area.

Moreover, the long-running concern about the credibility of assertions made by airport planners since 1994 has been reinforced. The county earlier had predicted that air pollution would be insignificant. Now, county planners have changed course after being chastened by a skeptical San Diego County Judge Judith M. McConnell. The result is a new analysis that demonstrates significant air pollution in the area from El Toro to John Wayne airports.

County planners now assert that they are working to reduce pollution by having having planes hooked to electrical outlets while parked so engines will not have to stay on for air conditioning to work.

For the county to have expected earlier that the public would believe that air pollution would not be significant was asking a lot. An increasingly questioning electorate voted overwhelmingly earlier this year to assert more direct control over big infrastructure projects like airports. This occurred through the passage of Measure F, an initiative that requires airports, landfills and some jails to be approved by two-thirds of voters. We repeatedly have registered our concern that such ballot-box planning is not the way to make major land-use decisions, and the constitutionality of Measure F is now before the courts. However, there is no denying that a key motivation in the passage of the initiative was the conclusion reached by many citizens that their government could not be counted on to present the facts in a straightforward way.

Unfortunately, getting at the truth of the airport has required costly litigation, and produced suspicion and division. The county so far still has stood by a flight operations plan that has been criticized roundly by experts.

For years, many concerned citizens haven’t believed in the credibility of the airport planning process. Reversals like the one on air pollution serve to reinforce a view that citizens and cities near El Toro were right to have doubts.