FAA Blocks Efforts to Stop Lead Poisoning

Agency Argues that Grant Assurances Require Local Communities to Expose Children to Harmful Levels of Lead

Should the Federal Government and U.S. Congress via the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have the right to willfully and intentionally subject children and the communities within which they reside to a neurotoxin and probable carcinogen, knowing full well that the adverse effects may be life-long and irreversible?

Miki Barnes
January 18, 2022

FAA Letter Challenging Ban on Leaded Fuel

Following the release of an 8/3/2021 peer-reviewed lead study that revealed elevated blood lead levels in children living near the Reid-Hillview Airport (RHV), the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to ban leaded aviation fuel as of January 1, 2022, at Reid-Hillview and San Martin Airports. Both are County owned and operated general aviation facilities. In response, the FAA sent a 10 page Notice of Informal Investigation letter dated 12/22/2021 to the County Airports Administration.

"This letter is to inform you that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has received multiple complaints from airport tenants and users, along with a group representing industry stakeholders who allege violations of grant assurances at the Reid-Hillview Airport (RHV) and the San Martin Airport...

"FAA records indicate that the planning and development of the Reid-Hillview airport and the San Martin airport have been financed, in part, with funds provided by the FAA under the Airport Improvement Program (AIP)...Upon acceptance of an AIP grant, the assurances become a binding contractual obligation between the airport sponsor and the Federal Government."

The FAA, in collusion with the aviation industry and airport owners and operators, has a lengthy history of using grant assurance agreements to disempower local communities by minimizing, marginalizing and dismissing serious public health and environmental concerns.

FAA AIP Funds Subsidized with Public Money

AIP funds originate from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. The grants the FAA generously lavishes on general aviation airports derive primarily from fees affixed to the tickets of commercial airline passengers each time they fly. Additional money comes from cargo and fuel taxes.

Per the FAA, "AIP also received an additional $1.9 billion dollars in discretionary funding for airport grants from the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury, including an additional $400 million from the General Fund in FY 2020."

Though U.S. airports are subsidized with public money, the FAA demonstrates little if any concern whatsoever for the destructive impacts of the glut of airports on local communities. Instead it caters to a privileged few aviation businesses and flight training schools as well as individuals who can afford to own private jets, aircraft and helicopters.

Only 500 of the approximately 20,000 airports in the U.S., two and one-half percent, are commercial passenger facilities, some of which also accommodate piston-engine aircraft. The remaining 97.5% are General Aviation (GA) airports that predominantly serve for-profit flight schools, private pilots, and air taxi services as well as corporate and private jet owners. The vast majority of GA flights occur in piston-engine aircraft that still rely on leaded fuel (avgas).

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has identified airports that service piston-engine aircraft as potential sources of lead exposure. According to Environmental Protection Agency, these aircraft are responsible for 70% of all airborne lead pollution nationwide.

As pointed out by Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, "Children living near these smaller airports, all over the nation, are unconscionably being harmed by leaded fuel."

Aviation Interests' Complaints to FAA

The list of the airport tenants, users and stakeholders who filed complaints about the Santa Clara County leaded fuel ban reflects the institutionalized white-privilege, patriarchal values this captive agency represents. Two are RHV based flight training schools - Tradewinds Aviation and AeroDynamic - both of which have a history of generating lead emissions, producing noise disruptions and releasing a host of other pollutants into the atmosphere while training pilots over the homes and neighborhoods of local residents.

Other stakeholders included:

• South County Airport Pilots Association
• Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
• Experimental Aircraft Association
• General Aviation Manufacturers Association
• Helicopter Association International
• National Air Transportation Association
• National Business Aviation Association

The FAA is aligning with the above aviation associations and businesses despite RHV lead study findings revealing "that leaded aviation fuel contributed to significantly increased blood lead levels for those within a half-mile of the facility. For context, the lead levels during peak hours were double the levels seen during the height of the Flint Water Crisis in Michigan."

Given the history of the aviation industry's pervasive indifference to public health and the environment, this is gearing up to become yet another all too familiar showdown:

The FAA, Federal Government, aircraft manufacturers, aviation professional associations, flight training schools, aircraft owners and affluent pilots

vs.

Infants, toddlers, babies, preschoolers, kindergarteners, school age children, adolescents, teenagers, unborn fetuses, pregnant mothers, minorities, people of color, economically disadvantaged populations, vulnerable adults, seniors, public health, wildlife, flora, clean air and water, the environment and future generations

This commonplace match-up is emblematic of the erosion of democratic values resulting from authoritarian, top-down policies. The FAA, in particular, has become all too adept at funneling public money onto the hands of wealthy aviation corporations while leaving vulnerable populations underserved and at risk.

Who Benefits from GA Airports

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) statistics reveal that in 2020 there were 691,691 certified pilots nationwide, which translates into less than one quarter of one percent of the population. Fewer than 9% were women. Private pilots numbered 160,860. Nearly one-third, 222,629, were student pilots, many recruited from overseas, with an additional 117,558 listed as flight instructors. Thus nearly half of the total pilot population is associated with the flight training industry.

It is this privileged, self-entitled minority, this minuscule sliver of the population, that is responsible for pumping 456 or more tons of lead, a pernicious neurotoxin which disproportionately impacts children, minorities, and lower socioeconomic groups, into the environment every year.

Concluding Remarks

Given the historically divisive, oppressive, and heavy-handed policies promulgated by the FAA, it is refreshing to witness the actions taken by the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors in banning leaded aviation fuel at Reid-Hillview and San Martin Airports. In the words of County Executive Jeffrey V. Smith, M.D., J.D. "We are committed to the health of Santa Clara County residents and that includes taking the necessary steps to protect the communities around County airports from continued aviation lead exposure."

In so doing, they demonstrated they have the courage and fortitude to not only represent the greater good of their constituents but also to address the racial injustices and inequities long exhibited by the aviation sector towards impacted communities including children, minorities and economically marginalized populations. The steps taken by the County Supervisors are an admirable example of the enactment of democratic principles in response to the authoritarian overreach of the FAA, a federal, tax-payer subsidized agency that all too often uses its clout to degrade the livability of local residents in an effort to further the interests of aggressive and environmentally irresponsible aviation business interests.

Clearly the FAA is in need of a thorough investigation and overhaul. Any government agency that aligns with one-quarter of one percent of the population in knowingly poisoning children and other community members has lost its moral and ethical standing, and as such should be declared unfit to serve in a decision-making capacity.