Expansion of Airport at Ski Area Blocked

In a strongly worded ruling, a federal judge Monday slammed the brakes on a $30-million expansion of the Mammoth Lakes airport, finding that the project’s environmental impacts on the sparsely populated Eastern Sierra had not been adequately reviewed.

The ruling by a U.S. district court magistrate in San Francisco bars the town from starting construction on the airport expansion and orders the Federal Aviation Administration to complete a full environmental impact statement.

The order will delay the airport project for a year or more while a more thorough environmental review is conducted. But attorneys said it is unclear what effect it might have on the FAA’s funding of the expansion work. “I think that’s something that remains to be seen,” said state Deputy Atty. Gen. Jamie Jefferson.

The ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits, one filed by the state and the other by the Sierra Club and several other conservation groups. Both claimed that the FAA had approved the expansion with a cursory environmental review that overlooked a host of potential consequences, from traffic to regional growth and possible harm to several endangered species.

In a 21-page ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman agreed.

The Federal Department of Transportation, he said, had not taken “any look, and certainly not a hard look, at many environmental consequences of the airport project.”

Many deficiencies in the environmental review “can be attributed to defendants’ myopic view of the airport project,” he stated. “Almost entirely ignored in the [environmental review] is a consideration of the impact on the region from the thousands or hundreds of thousands of additional visitors that the airport expansion is expected to attract.”

Jefferson called the ruling “really, really strong. It’s a pretty solid victory.”

Bill Manning, Mammoth Lake’s airport manager, said the order amounted to a fix-it ticket. “If we have to do further environmental studies, that’s what we will do.”

“It is simply a delay,” he added. “Remember it’s important to note it’s not about air service or no air service.... We may just start looking for something in the interim,” such as commuter plane service.

The airport expansion is a long-held dream of the Mammoth Mountain ski area, the town’s chief drawing card, which has suffered in recent years from competition from glitzier resorts in the West. Mammoth Lakes has argued that if it expands the airport runway and terminal to accommodate large commercial jets, it can greatly expand the town’s visitor base and boost its ambitions to become a year-round destination.

But environmental groups warn that the airport project could promote growth that would fundamentally alter the rural character of the Eastern Sierra, which contains rugged wilderness areas, spectacular scenery and rare wildlife.

“There’s almost a mythical belief here that the airport is necessary to their destination resort vision, which I think is a real estate buzz word. It’s just to sell property,” said Owen Maloy, vice chairman of the Range of Light group of the Sierra Club.

“One devoutly hopes,” he added, “that somebody will come to their senses in this town and make a plan that is reasonable.”

A spokesman for the FAA, which has approved some $30 million in federal funding for the expansion work, said he expected the agency to follow the court order, but did not know exactly how the ruling might affect the project.

“We need to look at this and decide how we’ re going to proceed,” Donn Walker said.