Allegations Still Flying in El Toro Debate

Re “Supervisors: ‘Yes’ on El Toro Airport,” Oct. 24:

The vote by the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ pro-airport majority to move forward with the largely unwanted and unpopular international El Toro airport is not surprising. It is really a pity that hard-working and peace-loving Americans are not only terrorized by selfish foreign agents, but also by their duly elected officials who apparently are unwilling or incapable of listening to the people that elected them. I am certain that terrorism, in any form, is totally unacceptable to Americans. The imported pro-airport demonstrators, who so very aptly articulated the unappealing aspects of having an airport in the midst of residential communities, should be talking with their elected officials and not transferring their problems. Two wrongs don’t make a right. If we do need to expand our airport capacities in Southern California, let us do this in a safe and professional manner. The current board members have proved they are incapable of this task and should be relieved of their duties.

Hans J. Roehricht

Lake Forest

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The approval of the environmental impact report opens a new era in the debate over a commercial airport at El Toro. County officials have spent over six years and tens of millions of dollars developing a wide body of comprehensive studies and reports while airport opponents spent nearly as much money on glossy brochures full of distortions, unsubstantiated claims, emotional arguments and scare tactics.

In hearing the lawsuits sure to be filed by airport opponents, rational argument and applicable statutes will be decisive. With such factors, anti-airport factions do not stand a chance.

Thomas R. Damiani

Newport Beach

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News flash! Orange County supervisors OK El Toro airport! Other breaking developments: Sun rises again....Tuesday expected to follow Monday.

Kurt Page

Laguna Niguel

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Re “Both El Toro Camps Cheer FAA Report,” Oct. 10:

Could The Times have printed a more ambiguous headline than bad news is good news or vice-versa? What is going on is a very disingenuous move by our pro-airport majority on the Board of Supervisors. They asked the FAA to initially approve an airport half the size of John Wayne, and then cheer that it could be operated safely with lighter loads and fewer passengers. The average citizen could have figured that out. But that is not what they have been leading us to believe. Their airport plan has been a 28.8-million-passenger international airport, and that is the FAA report we have been waiting for. For Bruce Nestande to lightly dismiss the bad news with “These other issues can be resolved” is definitely not reassuring.

We can read for ourselves in this report that there is no way to fully operate a two-airport system efficiently and that further studies would be required for more flights. The regional air space is already impacted. They just want a foot in the door to close John Wayne and stick us with a multibillion-dollar white elephant.

Mary Schwartz

Santa Ana

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The release of the FAA report on the El Toro airport has made little impression on dedicated anti-airport folks. Their attitude is they don’t want an airport anywhere near their homes but want to continue using tiny but convenient John Wayne Airport.

Of more importance to all Orange County voters is the alternative to the airport. The initiative is awaiting an appellate court decision on its legality, does nothing more than change the zoning of El Toro from an airport to that of a park. It gives no guarantee of a park unless the voters pay for it. To obtain the base from the Navy, Orange County taxpayers would have to buy it. To transform it into a park would require millions of dollars. Any lake developed at the site of the existing runways would be another Love Canal in its toxicity. Orange County voters can see through this pie-in-the-sky promise and will reject it.

Shirley Conger

Corona del Mar

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If El Toro was good enough for the Marines, is it good enough for airline operations? Hardly. Airlines operate for profit; the Marines do not. Income is generated only when the airplane becomes airborne and heads toward its destination. Projected ground delays and the county’s proposed convoluted arrival and departure procedures place this site at a severe competitive disadvantage. The airlines will demand and receive from the FAA a more efficient operating profile. This will include takeoffs to the south and occasionally to the west. Tailwind and headwind limitations are neither arbitrary nor optional. They are mandated by federal air regulations and vigorously enforced by the FAA.

Under the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990, only the FAA has jurisdiction over aircraft movement. To claim otherwise is a misrepresentation of fact.

Alexander Scott

Laguna Niguel

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The FAA has finally concluded that El Toro airport operations as proposed by the county will be safe. Since it is up to the FAA and only the FAA to decide the issue, the issue has been decided. I have heard arguments from anti-El Toro advocates that El Toro would be unsafe, or too noisy, or create a pollution or traffic problem. One by one, these arguments have fallen apart. In view of the recession and war on terrorism, we most certainly need an airport at El Toro rather than the proposed Great Park. The airport will bolster the local economy, the Great Park (dubbed the “Great Pork” by some) would drain it and the taxpayers’ wallets. As one who lives in the departure path of John Wayne Airport, which has no buffer zone, I can tell you that the benefits of having an airport close by outweigh the inconvenience of occasional jet plane noise. With the huge buffer zone at El Toro, very few people will be bothered at all.

Tony Knox

Newport Beach

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I don’t know why there is so much confusion over Orange County’s plan to build an airport at El Toro. At the end of the day, most airplanes will depart west on Runway 25 over Irvine and Newport Beach. This will clearly be the safest and most effective route and no one will dare argue when a future pilot demands Runway 25 for his loaded plane. All the rest of the discussion is bunk and a huge waste of time and money for Orange County citizens.

Even the new FAA report and the county’s EIR mix together like oil and water. The endorsement of the EIR accepts an invalid document since it does not include the study of Runway 25. But the county will continue to try to pound the square peg into the round hole that is El Toro. If ever built, El Toro’s Runway 25 will congest the skies over Newport Beach to a new level and its citizens will wonder who started all this.

Bill Rolfing

Laguna Beach

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To the vast majority of county residents with no financial stake, the pro-airport arguments have always lacked logic. While it is unlikely that the airport will ever be built, one should still keep a close watch on Supervisor Charles Smith. For those trusting residents of Newport Beach who have bought into Smith’s act, you should beware of his recent comments regarding changing flight traffic patterns as the airport grows and adds flights. You better believe that he actually means takeoffs to the west over Irvine and Newport Coast. Smith has a history of misleading county residents on airport matters and has little regard for how any community is impacted as long as his legacy of building an airport at El Toro is accomplished. Westerly departures are logically the best and safest takeoffs. Unfortunately, by the time the damage is done and the residents of Newport are subjected to three times the noise that they currently have from John Wayne, Smith will probably be retired to a quiet, airport-less community.

Finally, would somebody wake up Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and let him know that the landings and departures of Air Force One at El Toro a few years ago are actually an argument against El Toro’s runway configuration? Is he always so ill-prepared?

Bob Rennie

Rancho Santa Margarita

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Re the picture on Page 1 of the California section (Oct. 17) that shows Orange County supervisors Jim Silva and Todd Spitzer conferring over El Toro airport:

Nothing could demonstrate more clearly the attitudes and feelings regarding this issue than this photograph. Herein is Spitzer, clearly displaying his passion and honest appeal, both evidenced by his eyes and hand gesture, as he talks to Silva. On the other hand, the photo depicts Silva as uninterested, unyielding and not even looking at Spitzer. In my opinion, this says it all about the three members of the pro-airport majority on the Board of Supervisors. What will it take to make them heed the will of the people?

William Levinson

Mission Viejo