Where is the Environmental Justice at Toxic U.S. Airports?
On April 21, 2023 President Biden unveiled an Executive Order promoting environmental justice. According to the Fact Sheet on this decision,
"President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that every person has a right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in a healthy community – now and into the future...For far too long, communities across our country have faced persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental harms often due to a legacy of racial discrimination including redlining."
At the same time, the Biden Administration has funneled billions into U.S. general aviation airports that all too often bombard local residents with noise, lead emissions and other pollutants—airports that serve the recreational and business interests of a privileged few who represent less than one quarter of one percent of the population.
This highly recommended 14 minute YouTube video, Detrimental Lead Effects Caused by Reid Hillview Airport, released in the summer of 2022 provides crucial information about the adverse impact California's Reid Hillview Airport (RHV) has on the surrounding community. More than 80% of residents who live within a kilometer of this airport are members of minority populations.
For decades people residing in neighborhoods around RHV in San Jose have sought relief from the pollution and unwelcome noise intrusions relentlessly hurled on them by flight schools and private pilots. A ban on leaded fuel was instituted at RHV after an August 2021 study, commissioned by the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors, found that children living in proximity to this facility had blood lead levels equal to those found in children during the Flint water crisis. An effort was also initiated to expedite the closure of this facility.
Unfortunately no steps have yet been taken to provide reparations to the people who are suffering the negative health impacts resulting from the historical and current noise and pollution generated by this facility.
Correspondence Between an Environmental Justice Activist and the EPA
Below is an email sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by Maria Reyes, a long time advocate for minority community members. She lives in the Cassell Neighborhood. Her communications with the EPA help to illustrate how U.S. aviation policy perpetuates racism, inequality, and discrimination.
April 25, 2023
Good afternoon,
I would like to ask for justice for our minority children.
Our children go to school right next to Reid Hillview Airport. This airport is open 24/7.
The county has banned leaded fuel at this airport, however, the pilots can still purchase leaded fuel at Mineta and Palo Alto Airports.
In addition to the contaminated lead filled air, our children and families suffer from the constant noise pollution emitted from these aircrafts. There is no curfew at this airport and families just have to suffer day in and day out with this added pollution.
We continue reading about environmental justice. We keep reading about studies. We keep reading about the future, but what about today? How many more of our children and minority families need to be subjected to this nuisance abuse?
What decisions are being made to enforce the removal of these types of nuisance airports? On behalf of our minority families, please take a stronger stand and help our communities to remove these airports.
Thank you,
Maria
On May 5, 2023 Ken Davidson from the EPA responded as follows.
Dear Mrs. Maria Reyes:
Thank you for your April 25, 2023, email to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expressing your concerns about the aircraft flying over your community.
We share your deep concerns about the impacts of elevated lead levels in the children living near Reid Hillview Airport. Protecting children's health, advancing environmental justice, and reducing lead exposure are some of EPA's top priorities.
The EPA does not have authority in regard to how an airport operates or whether airports remain open for operation by aircraft.
We are continuing to work diligently on our evaluation of lead emissions from these aircraft and, we are currently reviewing and considering all the comments that were provided to the EPA regarding our proposed finding that lead emissions from aircraft engines that operate on leaded fuel cause or contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare. We plan to issue the EPA's final determination on this matter in the fall of this year.
EPA's consideration of the endangerment finding is a first step toward application of EPA's and FAA's statutory authorities to address lead pollution from aircraft. This action, if finalized, would not establish new control measures regarding aircraft lead emissions, nor would it impose restrictions on the use of leaded avgas.
If EPA makes a final determination that aircraft engine lead emissions cause or contribute to lead air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare, EPA would then have a duty to propose regulatory standards for lead emissions from such engines. Such a final determination by the EPA would also trigger the FAA's statutory mandate to prescribe standards for the composition or chemical or physical properties of an aircraft fuel or fuel additive to control or eliminate aircraft lead emissions.
I hope this information is helpful.
Ken Davidson
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
Assessment and Standards Division
Maria Reyes' response to the EPA's May 5, 2023 message:
Good morning Ken,
The EPA has been evaluating lead emissions from the small single piston airplanes for over a year. We all know that these small single piston aircrafts are emitting lead into our air. We, my community is breathing this air 24/7.
It is incredible to try to understand how if the EPA is responsible to evaluate these lead emissions, why this process is taking so long to complete. The EPA has been in existence for many years and still no concrete findings.
I realize this is all about politics and who pays into what pockets, however, I feel strongly that the EPA needs to stay focused and find this endangerment finding today, not tomorrow. Our children are the ones who are being damaged by these nuisance pilots who continue to bring lead into the community without any consequences.
Ken, if your children were under this flight path, what would your response be then? Would you be willing to wait another 5, 10, 15 years to get an endangerment finding for these aircrafts? Be honest - what would your response be?
I am asking for Protection of our children's health - no more neurological impairments, for justice for a minority community - Latinos, Blacks, Vietnamese - that has been subjected to this negative environment by the privileged few who still think we live back in the 1930's where red-lining is acceptable - and the reduction of lead being brought in today by these inconsiderate nuisance pilots as they still buy their leaded fuel at Mineta and Palo Alto airports. [Bold and Italics added]
In the Spirit of Community and Growth,
Maria
Maria Reyes is a wife, mother, grandmother and community activist. She came to the U.S. from Mexico with her parents at the age of four. Her family worked picking prunes, cutting apricots, cherries, and walnuts to support themselves. She retired from the County of Santa Clara after 30 years of service. For the past ten years she has advocated for minority families especially on the East Side of San Jose where many residents struggle due to fear of deportation, the language barrier, abusive landlords, the high cost of living in Silicon Valley, and lack of adequate social services. Many of these residents work in menial jobs.
Concluding Remarks
The egregious over-investment in aviation, at the detriment of neighboring communities, makes a mockery of environment justice. The U.S. policy of using taxpayer dollars and commercial passenger fees to fund noisy, polluting airports that exploit and quite literally poison local residents suggests that much of the discourse on environmental justice is empty rhetoric. It is time to move forward with bold, concerted, legally enforceable measures to make right the terrible wrongs that have been inflicted on the people impacted by RHV and other airports across the country. Serious consideration must be given to shuttering flight schools and closing general aviation airports that disrupt and degrade the health and well-being of residents while compromising ecological diversity and contributing to global warming. Those whose health, quality of life and livability have been damaged by aviation noise and air pollution deserve to be compensated for their losses.
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