More Pros and Cons on the El Toro Proposals

Re “Toxins Mar Park Plan, Panel Says,” Dec. 11:

The Times reports Greg Hurley as saying that the Navy hasn’t done a comprehensive study of contamination at El Toro. He is saying that there may be a lot more bad stuff buried there than has been disclosed.

Now, airport proponents are waving this issue as a red flag to scare people away from the park proposal. They even have raised the specter of radioactive materials at the site. If there are more toxins buried under El Toro than reported in the EIR, then the amount of toxins released into the environment by the construction of an LAX-type airport there will be greater than reported too.

The county should have disclosed and analyzed those greater impacts in the EIR, but didn’t. The county must withdraw its approval of the EIR pending completion of a supplemental EIR.

Len Gardner

Laguna Woods

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Re “Airport Design in U.S. Took a Big Hit on Sept. 11,” Dec. 9:

The article confirmed the expected: our airports were not built with the security needed to stop terrorists. While that news was expected, it nevertheless generates new concerns regarding flying.

I couldn’t help but think how fortunate we are to have the El Toro property and an opportunity to build a secure airport in Orange County. Imagine the peace of knowing that proper security was being provided that could guarantee a flight free of terrorist intervention.

Let’s keep that property zoned for an airport and say no the park plan on the March ballot. Our security is more important!

Angela Gallagher

Costa Mesa

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Re “The People Get to Decide,” Commentary, Dec. 2:

Larry Agran has seen fit to deliver another innocuous irrational chapter in his political quest to stop an airport at the former Marine base at El Toro. He says nothing new or innovative, with fiscal responsibility a big part of his epistle.

The key point is where he states that “We [the city of Irvine] stand ready to annex the property and take full responsibility for these obligations.” The citizens of Irvine and other cities of the county do not understand how Agran can commit the entire population of Irvine to this serious and massive financial obligation. The only way this impossible venture could be successfully carried to any degree (after annexation, of course) would be to develop the property to housing and commercial/industrial use. I wonder what Lake Forest, Tustin and other South County communities think of this latest Agran takeover move?

The Irvine Co. is now releasing 11,000 acres of property to be open space. Since the citizens of Irvine don’t use their present parks, it looks like we might have overkill in open space and parkland. People will have so many choices that they will never be able to make up their minds. So do we pay handsomely to go to Agran’s park or do we just go to the 11,000-acre open space/parkland for our picnic, bike ride or walk? The Irvine Co. brochure states that “abundant open space, parks and recreation are at the core of what we prize on the Irvine Ranch: Our quality of life.” In addition to the 11,000 acres, Agran wants 4,700 acres for another park that only Irvine can control.

Agran rails about the county spending millions on planning the airport, which is sorely needed for the future, neglecting to mention that the county was obligated to do this by the previous votes. Why is there no outcry when Irvine spends millions from city coffers promoting a park that is not needed?

Charles Larson

Newport Beach

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The public needs to understand what is not going on regarding El Toro cleanup planning.

The Navy has spent millions on planning, but has yet to turn a spadeful of earth in actual remediation since the mid-1990s. Studies, studies, studies, and they have yet to do a complete physical survey of even the known pollution sites on the base.

Supervisors Smith, Coad, and Silva are so eager to take possession of the property that they are more than willing to overlook the pollution, and pave it over with an airport, sealing forever into Mother Earth a problem that is already percolating a plume of various lethal contaminants under Irvine. Next step after that: the Back Bay and our ocean beaches and waters. These three should be jailed for failing to perform their responsibility to protect the health and safety of current as well as future Orange County citizens.

So it is left up to the citizens and voters of Orange County to take action against these “do-nothing” public officials, and use every means (read: legal) to ensure that these officials carry out their collective responsibilities to preserve the health and safety of future O.C. generations.

Michael Smith

Mission Viejo

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The Navy will not clean up the El Toro property to an acceptable level, nor should it. The land itself is an enormous gift to us, and we should not expect our armed services to spend billions more in the giving. The financial burden will be upon us.

Therefore, it makes sense to build a project that will provide the income necessary to pay for that extensive cleanup, such as an airport, which studies indicate will create 84,714 jobs and generate about $6.2 billion in annual economic activity by 2020.

With this new information, it would be foolish to vote for the park plan, which would rezone the property and thus eliminate the possibility of an airport. Whether that airport will actually be built is another issue, but the opportunity must be preserved.

Claudia Downs

Newport Beach

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Nobody blames Newport Beach residents for not wanting to live under a flight path. I lived on Balboa Island for more than 20 years. If the El Toro airport proponents would just come out and admit that they really want John Wayne Airport closed or at least never expanded, they’d have a legitimate argument. Instead, every week we read letters spouting the same redundant and disingenuous rationalizations: An international airport at El Toro would create thousands of new jobs. How many Newport residents would line up for these positions as baggage handlers, ticket agents, parking attendants, food clerks, and custodians?

South County should share the transportation burden of Orange County. I guess it’s true that misery loves company, but when the massive airport has ruined my neighborhood, my sleep, my lungs, and my property values, knowing that I did my “civic duty”--that the Orange County supervisors finally repaid their developer contributors--won’t be enough.

Orange County needs an airport to bring tourists to our area and to boost our economy. Well, the last time I looked, the lines at Disneyland were long enough, the boats in Newport Harbor appeared well maintained, and the freeways were filled with people going to work. Even without a new airport, local developers should be able to find enough projects to keep themselves busy. They always have.

A bigger county isn’t necessarily a better one.

Kurt Page

Laguna Niguel