Toxic Leaded Aviation Fuel Polluting Drinking Water in Wisconsin
The following interview by Faye Parks and the News Department of the WORT Community Radio station in Madison, Wisconsin aired on 1/9/2025.
Both the audio (4 minutes 34 seconds) and the written transcript are available here.
Morey Airport (C29) is a general aviation airport owned and operated by the City of Middleton. It borders the neighboring Town of Middleton, a separate municipality, that is adversely impacted by the noise, lead emissions, pollution, safety and security risks produced by this airport. According to the website, "As of 2019, the airport accommodates around 40,000 operations annually, and approximately 100 aircraft are based at the field."
Per the 2017 Environmental Protection Agency National Emissions Inventory (NEI), Morey Airport emitted 217 lbs of lead into the air during the landing and take-off phase of flight that year. Additional lead was released during ground run-ups and the cruise phase of flight.
The opening paragraphs of the report appear below.
Leaded Gas At Middleton Airport Linked To Nearby Water Contamination
The U.S. Geological Survey found evidence of lead contamination in two private wells near the Morey Airport in the city of Middleton.
And that contaminant is the specific isotope, or fingerprint, for leaded aviation gas.
"It really – according to the EPA, I've been told – this is a first-of-its-kind study showing a connection between airborne, leaded aviation gas emissions from these aircraft overflights working its way into the ground," says Cynthia Richson, board chair in the town of Middleton.
The neighboring city of Middleton owns and operates Morey Airport, which has been under public scrutiny for years.
And Richson, who's led the charge for half a decade now, says the airport first got their attention due to noise pollution from low-flying planes.
"And when we started looking into that issue further, that is how we were really surprised to learn that these piston-engine aircraft – which are essentially recreational aircraft for hobbyists – used aviation fuel with lead in it," says Richson. "And we knew that lead in auto gas had been banned at least 25 years ago and we were really surprised to see that it was still allowed, legally, for these piston-engine aircraft."
Lead is a neurotoxin that can cause a range of serious health effects, even in minute levels.
But city of Middleton officials, Richson says, handwaved all of their concerns.
She hired a consulting firm in 2019 to study airborne lead levels around the airport. And those consultants found that the airport generated over 30% of all airborne lead emissions in Dane County.
To read the article in full click here.
A 1/6/2025 letter from the Town of Middleton to the City of Middleton in response to the contaminated well water finding is available here.
As stated in the letter, "The continued use and sale of leaded aviation gas at the recreational Airport is recklessly and needlessly putting at risk the health, safety and welfare of Middleton families...Continuing these health damaging conditions is unacceptable and easily remedied by terminating the sale and use of leaded avgas at the Morey Airport and replacing it with G 100 Unleaded Avgas."
A second article on the contaminated well water findings appeared in a 1/13/2025 Cap Times article by Andrew Bahl, Study Links Lead Contamination to Aviation Fuel in Dane County.
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