Environmental study OKd for LAX

Citing safety concerns that they said overrode outrage from neighboring communities, members of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners on Monday approved a contract for an environmental study that will include a possible reconfiguring of the northern runways at LAX.

The unanimous approval of the $8.7-million contract, with Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., came after a standing-room-only crowd of Los Angeles International Airport neighbors urged commissioners to consider other options and to wait for a safety study.

Last month, the federal Government Accountability Office released a report that found that, since 2001, LAX has had the most on-ground close calls of any major U.S. airport, as well as the highest number of incidents classified as severe.

These incidents included relatively minor mishaps, such as a pilot on a taxiway stopping too close to an active runway, and serious incidents, such as when two jets carrying 296 people came within 37 feet of each other on the airport’s north side in August.

The report’s release put pressure on the commissioners to speed up their runway safety efforts, which probably will include widening the distance between the two runways on the airfield’s north side.

One possible option -- moving the northernmost runway -- has drawn sharp opposition from residents and businesses in neighboring Westchester, which over the years has borne the brunt of noise, traffic and other fallout of LAX’s growth into the world’s fifth-busiest airport. Many in Westchester wanted airport commissioners to wait for an additional safety study, agreed upon previously, before proceeding with an environmental report.

But that study, ordered last summer from NASA’s Ames Research Center, has been delayed in the face of a policy shift in Washington regarding NASA’s mission and priorities.

On Monday, Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of the city’s airports agency, told the commission that NASA had informed her it would be able to do only a “small portion” of the work, and it has suggested airport officials find another organization to perform a full study.

Even without waiting for a new safety study, it will be at least three years before work can begin on a project to reconfigure the north airfield, officials said.

“I don’t think anyone would disagree here that we’ve got a serious situation,” said Commissioner Fernando Torres-Gil. “Waiting what may be four years for a resolution . . . is there any other way to shorten that time frame?”

Many Westchester residents, fearful that their businesses and neighborhoods would suffer if a reconfiguration brings the airport even closer to their community, attended the meeting.

Terry Marcellus, 57, an attorney who said he has lived in Westchester his entire life and is a member of the Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa del Rey, urged commissioners to walk into his community and imagine themselves living there, watching a jet fly over his elementary school playground, as he had growing up.

“It would be nice if we felt the deck wasn’t stacked against us,” Marcellus said. “Don’t ask for the construction process when we haven’t decided what the construction is going to be.”

Danna Cope, another Westchester resident and chairwoman of the LAX Area Advisory Committee, urged commissioners to “wait for [the safety study] to proceed.”

“It’s foolish to start down this road when we find out, uh-oh, we have to go down that road later,” Cope said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that operates LAX, have said for years that increasing the space between the north airfield’s two parallel runways to keep aircraft farther apart is critical.

In a statement to the commission, Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) asked members to petition the FAA and the secretary of Transportation to increase the spacing between flights and the numbers of air traffic controllers.

“We cannot wait multiple years,” he wrote. “With every passing week, millions of passengers are put at risk.”

A $333-million project is underway to further separate the airport’s south runways and install a center taxiway. The project, which was supported by the nearby community of El Segundo after a NASA study, is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

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tami.abdollah@latimes.com