The Pinocchio Chronicles #20, FAA AEDT Comments, Part III, #309

The Pinocchio Chronicles #20, FAA AEDT Comments, Part III, #309

At Last

Memory Lane: Pinocchio Chronicles 306 & 307 (AEDT Parts I & II April 2022)

The April 2022 Pinocchio pieces noted that the FAA failed to answer October 2021 questions about its Airport Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) computer model. The AEDT model calculates noise and pollution near county’s McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad. But only if the county asks the model the right questions and inputs the right data.

At Last

Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, and Aretha Franklin said it best: At last, My love has come along, My lonely days are over, And life is like a song, Oh yeah yeah, At last.

In July 2022, the FAA Environment and Energy Office answered AEDT questions. Today’s and coming Pinocchio posts ask whether the FAA AEDT model truly captures Palomar’s air quality and noise problems. At last.

Should You Care? Should Carlsbad & County Officials Care?

As Pinocchio article 307 reported, you and your kids live in one of the worst ozone polluted cities in California. And caring Carlsbad and county politicians should be asking why.

Palomar’s Methane and Ozone Problem

Start with McClellan-Palomar Airport (Palomar). Before Carlsbad annexed Palomar into Carlsbad in 1979, the county dumped nearly 1 million cubic yards of trash into 3 airport canyons next to the runway between 1964 and 1976. County closed the landfills in 1976 but rotting garbage below now spews methane gas.

County tries to collect this gas by a vast methane gas piping system a few feet below the Palomar runway east end safety area. But not always successfully. Recall Palomar had a 6-month underground landfill fire in the early 2000s.

Wikipedia.com reports:

“Methane is … extremely flammable and may form explosive mixtures with air. Methane is also an asphyxiant … . Methane off-gas can penetrate the interiors of buildings near landfills and expose occupants to significant levels of methane. …

A methane gas explosion [caused] the … coal mine disaster in West Virginia [in] 2010 killing 29. Natural gas accidental release has also been a major focus in the field of safety engineering, due to past accidental releases that concluded in the formation of jet fire disasters.

Britannica.com reports: “Methane … is among the most potent of the greenhouse gases.

Nasa.gov reports: “Methane’s Impacts on Climate Change May Be Twice Previous Estimates” (7/18/05).

AirClim.org reports: “Global action to reduce methane emissions could by 2050 avoid 70,000 to 130,000 annual premature deaths due to ozone pollution globally, and 6,000 to 11,000 in the EU alone.” (Acid News, No. 4 December 2018, Cut Methane to Reduce Ozone.”

In sum, the FAA, Carlsbad, and county officials expanding Palomar between 2023 and 2030 must explain the safety, health, and environmental risks that Palomar Airport creates.

Next time, we ask: Have the FAA, Carlsbad, and county computer-modeled Palomar’s methane and lead pollution emissions? Yes, lead too. Propeller aircraft exhausts have been dumping lead over Carlsbad homes and schools for 60 years because most propeller aircraft use leaded aviation fuel.