O.C. Concedes ‘Significant’ El Toro Pollution Possible

Orange County officials are now acknowledging that a proposed commercial airport at the former El Toro Marine base could cause “significant” air pollution that “cannot be mitigated.”

Under orders from a San Diego County judge, county officials on Friday released a revised version of their 1996 environmental impact review (EIR) for an airport at El Toro.

The new report’s findings are contrary to the county’s earlier analysis, which predicted that air pollution could be reduced to a point of insignificance.

“I don’t think anyone really believed the county when they said there wouldn’t be major impacts,” Leonard Kranser, spokesman for the anti-airport group Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities, said Friday. “Now the truth is coming out.”

The new analysis shows significant air pollution in the area stretching from El Toro to John Wayne Airport if El Toro is developed as a large commercial airfield. “The proposed project will result in significant regional air quality impacts attributable to aircraft emissions that cannot be mitigated,” the newly reissued EIR states.

But that may not be the final word, said Bryan Speegle, planning manager for the El Toro project. He said the county is still fine-tuning the airport plan--including reducing it and creating ways of lessening air pollution, such as having planes at the gate hooked into electrical outlets so engines don’t have to stay on to power air-conditioning systems.

“We feel that aircraft emissions will be less than significant once these [new] mitigations are applied,” Speegle said Friday.

The county’s assessments of expected airport pollution so far haven’t passed muster with San Diego County Judge Judith M. McConnell, who has twice ordered the county to redo its pollution analysis after airport foes sued claiming the county’s studies were inadequate.

The county’s 1996 plan envisioned an airport serving as many as 38 million passengers a year. The current project--the subject of a second environmental review that remains unfinished--has been reduced to about 28.8 million passengers a year.

However, county officials admitted last month that the methodology for analyzing pollution effects in the earlier report is also being used in the still unfinished review--creating another potential snag for the oft-delayed project.

County officials expected the Board of Supervisors to approve the environmental review this month, but now say the vote could be pushed back to next year.

The 1996 review, and its first revision released last year, said two-thirds of pollution from the new airport would come from aircraft, with the rest from vehicles on the ground. The county cannot regulate aircraft emissions, but it proposed to use low-emission fuels in the ground vehicles to reduce overall pollution to an “insignificant” level.

While airport foes have hailed the judge’s rulings, McConnell nonetheless has allowed airport planning to continue. Work was halted temporarily in April and May after the March passage of Measure F, which includes strict limits on airport spending.

But last month, Los Angeles County Judge S. James Otero, ruling on a challenge to the initiative, froze enforcement of the spending limits until June 23, when he will rule on the legality of the entire measure.

Airport foes celebrated another victory in March when a state appellate court ordered Orange County to cover nearly $450,000 in attorneys fees by the two anti-airport groups that sued over the 1996 environmental review.

The county’s revised environmental review will be available at county libraries. The public has until July 17 to submit written comments on its conclusions. by mail to County of Orange, El Toro Master Development Program, Attn: Bryan Speegle, 10 Civic Center Plaza, 2nd Floor, Santa Ana, 92701.

Comments of 500 words or less can be e-mailed to EIR563@ceo.hoa.co.orange.ca.us or faxed to (714) 834-6120.