Cynthia Curtis, the county Palomar EIR Initial Study project manager, needs your comments. By March 29. How will extending the McClellan-Palomar (Palomar) runway over a methane-emitting closed landfill change your life?
- Neighborhood Flight Noise. How much will noise increase as Palomar increases more large aircraft flights? From today’s 150,000 per year to the near 300,000 handled 15 years ago? To the near 400,000 predicted 20 years ago? How will noise change when aircraft take off at 90%, not 60%, load to fly internationally?
- Traffic. How gridlocked will Palomar Airport Road, El Camino Real, the I-5 and I-78 be when Palomar handles 1,000,000 passengers annually, not just 50,000? Only 20,000 annual flights (out of Palomar’s 150,000) carrying 50 people per flight generates 1,000,000 passengers. And 1,000,000 passengers equals 2,000,000 more road trips. A car to and from the airport for each passenger.
- Air Quality. Aircraft create substantial greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Carlsbad’s 2015-2035 adopts many measures to meet California’s new strict GHG requirements but adopts none for aircraft.
- Water Quality. Palomar Airport (Parcel G of the old Aqua Hedionda land grant) lies on 3 large methane-emitting closed landfills. One abuts the Palomar runway east end. Landfills are simply canyons filled with decomposing trash. Palomar has had at least two underground landfill fires, one burning for about 6 months. Fires burning household plastics and batteries and old carpet and ceiling and floor tiles create toxic substances. When county built the landfills, it failed to line the landfill bottoms with 3 feet of clay, the standard practice today to prevent decomposing landfill waste from sinking into the clean soil and ground water.
- Credibility. County plans to extend the Palomar runway by drilling hundreds (perhaps up to 1000) holes 15 to 30 feet deep through its landfill trash. County will then pour concrete into the holes to form piles to support the new runway. Can you believe the county that such construction will not create significant air quality, water quality, and safety problems?
- Safety: Flight Schools. How safe are foreign pilots with limited English skills who speak 15 different languages training at Palomar and Gillespie field with “touch and go” flights over your houses?
- Large or Small Aircraft? Do you – as Supervisor Horn stated at the December 2015 Board of Supervisor meeting – want large aircraft to replace the small recreational aircraft at Palomar?
- Voting on the Palomar Expansion. By 1979 initiative petition, Carlsbad voters forced the City Council to adopt Carlsbad Municipal Code § 21.053.015. That section says Carlsbad voters get to vote on county Palomar expansions requiring Carlsbad review. Both Carlsbad and county intend to ignore this code. Should they?
If you have an opinion, email Cynthia at Cynthia.Curtis@sdcountyca.gov by March 29. You do NOT need to be a Carlsbad resident to comment. Copy me in if you wish at benderbocan@aol.com
