Santa Monica to Stop Selling Leaded Aviation Fuel

Miki Barnes
December 3, 2021

At their 11/23/2021 city council meeting, the City of Santa Monica unanimously voted to "direct the City Manager to cease all storage, distribution, and sale of leaded fuel from equipment and storage tanks owned and operated by the City of Santa Monica at the Santa Monica Airport on or before 4/1/2022." (Discussion on this motion begins at 4:48 in the video recording of the 11/23/2021 city council meeting.)

Councilmember Brock, who promoted this action, pointed out that leaded aviation fuel is both a health and an environmental issue and further noted that, "Blood lead levels in our children have profound long term impacts on a child's development."

Brock explained that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decree does not require the city to sell leaded aviation fuel at the airport as long as it is available through other sources. This suggests that though the city is united in its decision to take definitive action to protect community members from exposure to lead from city owned sources, other Santa Monica Airport aviation businesses intend to continue selling and subjecting residents to the negative impacts of this toxin.

Extensive research attests to the harmful and irreversible effects of lead, a toxin that has a disproportionate and irreversible effect on children, people of color, pregnant mothers, unborn fetuses and vulnerable adults. It is highly troubling and deeply disturbing that the federal government via the FAA is complicit in the widespread poisoning of millions of people nationwide who are impacted by the more than 20,000 U.S. airports that, like Santa Monica, accommodate lead spewing piston-engine aircraft.

Santa Monica City Council Votes to Join Earthjustice in Urging EPA to Issue Nationwide Ban of Leaded Aviation Fuel

At their 11/09/2021 meeting, (see minutes, Pgs,10-11), the Santa Monica City Council voted to "direct staff to take necessary steps to have the City join in the recent petition filed by Earthjustice to urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to initiate a nationwide ban of leaded aviation gasoline and to appeal to the City's congressional representatives to advocate for the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration and Environmental Protection Agency to stop the sale of leaded aviation fuel and to expedite the approval process for an alternative to leaded aviation fuel." The motion passed unanimously.

Articles by Dr. Charles Blum on the Negative Impacts of Leaded Fuel on Human Health and the Environment

A guest column by Dr. Charles Blum expressing support for the ban on leaded fuel, entitled Preparing for the Best Case Scenario: The City of Santa Monica's Involvement in the Storage and Sale of Leaded AvGas, appeared in the Santa Monica Daily Mirror on 11/15/2021.

Per the author, "Since lead in AvGas is one of the largest air and soil contaminant source in our environment the City of Santa Monica should immediately stop their sale of this toxic fuel. However it should also consider stopping their involvement with the storage of fuel underground at SMO. When we consider the health of our citizens and environment the risk of storing fuel that could lead to health risks affecting our aquifers warrants our serious attention."

On September 7, 2021, an earlier article by Dr. Blum, Santa Monica Airport (SMO), Leaded Avgas, Childhood Blood Lead Levels: Profound Pediatric Health Consequences appeared in the Santa Monica Daily Mirror.