Call to Action - Make Your Voice Heard

Tell DEQ to Eliminate the Aviation Fuel Exemptions Currently Included in the Draft Climate Protection Program

Oregon Proposal to Regulate Industrial Sources of Greenhouse Gases While Giving Airports and State Aviation Agencies a Free Pass to Pollute with Abandon is Environmentally Irresponsible

Miki Barnes
October 15, 2021

Oregon DEQ is currently in the process of developing a statewide program to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the current proposal exempts all aviation fuels, including leaded avgas, from regulation. As a result, two of Oregon's most polluting state agencies – the Port of Portland (Port) and the Department of Aviation (DOA) are not required to meet the same standards expected of stationary industrial polluters.

The Port and the DOA in particular are two of the biggest polluters in Oregon. For more than a century, these two state agencies have degraded the environment and destroyed livability by pumping greenhouse gases, lead, PM2.5, PM10, benzene, elemental carbon, carbon monoxide, relentless noise and a host of other toxins into the air.

According to the Oregon Department of Land Use and Development, "Transportation is the largest contributor to global warming in Oregon, making up 40 percent of Oregon's climate warming emissions." Many residents throughout the state are conscientiously reducing their reliance on fossil fuels by driving less, walking more, bicycling, using public transit, carpooling, traveling by train and bus, and limiting air travel. Yet Oregon's airports undermine these efforts by promoting and expanding fossil-fuel burning aviation activity. This is unacceptable. For the sake of the long-term health of the planet and its inhabitants, flight training schools, aviation businesses, private pilots, jet owners, business travelers and commercial airline passengers should be required to substantially reduce their toxic emissions as well.

DEQ Rulemaking – Climate Protection Program: DEQ Extends Public Comment Deadline to Oct. 25, 2021

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has extended the deadline for submitting public comment on the proposed Greenhouse Gas Emissions Program Rulemaking to establish a new Climate Protection Program to limit greenhouse gas emissions from certain sources in Oregon to Monday, Oct. 25, 2021 at 4 p.m.

In response to multiple requests for extension of the comment period, DEQ is extending the public comment period by 21 days in order to allow an additional opportunity to submit data, views or arguments concerning the proposed rules. As a result of this action, the deadline for comments is extended from Oct. 4, 2021 at 4 p.m. to Oct. 25, 2021 at 4 p.m.

Comment by email:
Commenters should include "Rulemaking Comment" in the email subject line. Submit emails to: GHGCR2021@deq.state.or.us.

Comment by mail:
Oregon DEQ
Attn: Nicole Singh
700 NE Multnomah St., Suite 600
Portland, OR 97232-4100

Additional Information: Sign up to receive rulemaking updates here. Contact GHGCR2021@deq.state.or.us with questions.

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The following text and images are excerpted from the comments sent by Miki Barnes to DEQ on 10/7/2021. The complete submission is available on the Oregon Aviation Watch website at DEQ Climate Protection Program Rulemaking Comment.

"There is little time left to avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory....we face a climate crisis that threatens our people and communities, public health and economy, and, starkly, our ability to live on planet Earth....We must listen to science— and act...It is the policy of my Administration to organize and deploy the full capacity of its agencies to combat the climate crisis to implement a Government-wide approach that reduces climate pollution in every sector of the economy..."

President Joe Biden, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, Exec. Order No. 14,008 (Jan. 27, 2021)

Please note, the above quote from President Biden, speaks of a "Government-wide approach that reduces climate pollution in every sector of the economy..." There was no mention whatsoever of absolving government institutions such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Port of Portland (Port) and the Oregon Department of Aviation (ODA) of responsibility for reducing greenhouse gases.

Flight Tracks

Below is a series of screenshots gathered from Flightradar24 between September 6 and October 1 of 2021 depicting flight-tracks generated by training aircraft that departed from and returned to the Hillsboro Airport, the largest general aviation airport in the state. They represent a small fraction of the air traffic over the area. Each one is produced by a single aircraft many of which remain in the air for an hour or more. To formulate an accurate picture of the amount of aviation activity, greenhouse gases, noise, lead exposure and other toxic pollutants released over Washington County residents, both urban and rural, bear in mind that HIO logs an average of 695 take-offs and landings every single day. Additional toxic emissions are released by users of other airports in the region including but not limited to Stark's Twin Oaks, Aurora, Scappoose, Sunset Airstrip, McMinnville and PDX.

DEQ's draft Climate Protection Program, as currently written, exempts these pilots and others across the state of all responsibility for pumping tons of pollutants into the atmosphere every single year.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N6400Q 10/1/2021 4:24 PM. This aircraft had been in the air for one hour and twenty minutes when this screenshot was captured.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N125MG 9-22-2021 5:42 PM. This aircraft had been releasing greenhouse gases and degrading livability for nearly an hour when this screenshot was captured.

 

Hagele Aviation N9558 09-20-2021 12:43 PM. Chuck Hagele is the Director of Maintenance for Hillsboro Aero Academy. He formed his own private flight training business several years ago. The Port of Portland chose Mr. Hagele to serve as a citizen-at-large representative on their most recent HIO master planning advisory committee. His wife currently represents Washington County on the Hillsboro Airport Advisory Committee.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N6460M 9/20/2021 4:35 PM. This is an example of an aircraft that left HIO, then flew low and loud over our home in Manning, Oregon. People who speak out about aviation noise, pollution, and environmental degradation are frequently intentionally targeted, harassed and bullied by aggressive pilots and flight training businesses.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N95539 9-17-2021 9:53 AM. This aircraft had been polluting the area for over an hour when this screenshot was captured. The skies over Banks, Roy, and Wilksboro are often targeted multiple times daily, a reflection of Oregon's established policy of exploiting rural communities and poisoning prime farmland in an effort to serve the interests of affluent self-serving pilots, out of state investors, foreign governments, and the state agencies that profit from and promote aviation in Oregon.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N324SP 09-17-2021 10:11 AM. This aircraft had been in the air for close to an hour when this screenshot was captured. Please note the nine other aircraft visible in the skies over Washington County. Many were also involved in repetitive flight training activities over homes, neighborhoods, schools, day care centers, senior facilities, prime farmland and recreational areas.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N62348 09-16-2021 11:01 AM. This aircraft had been in the air close to one and a half hours when this screenshot was captured.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N8125L 09-16-2021 4:20 PM. This twin-engine Piper Seminole packs twice the noise and pollution of a single engine aircraft.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy flight N757LY 09-14-2021 2:06 PM. This aircraft had been in the air for over one and three-quarters hour when this screenshot was captured, all the while pumping greenhouse gases, noise, lead and other pollutants into the air over rural Washington County residents.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N5124B 09-09-2021. Yet another example of a Hillsboro Aero Academy pilot pelting the area with layer upon layer of noise and toxic pollutants. Note the eight other general aviation aircraft polluting the skies over Washington County at the time this screenshot was captured.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N450JA 9-12-2021 4:24 PM. Another example of HAA's relentless assault on Washington County residents and the environment.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N25221 09-06-2021 12:45 PM, an example of yet another training flight releasing noise and pollution over rural Washington County communities.

 

Hillsboro Aero Academy N648S 09-06-2021 12:04 PM. This screenshot depicts the flight track of an aircraft pumping greenhouse gases, noise, lead and other toxins both in Hillsboro and in rural communities more than 12 miles from the airport.