11-14 Public Comment from Davis, Airport Fuel Do we sell lead fuel at our City Airport? Do we sell Jet fuels at our
City Airport? Do we allow this danger to be placed on the residents of
Kalispell? These questions need to be known and answered. There are
Schools, Day Cares, Play Grounds around this airport and in the flight
path of aircraft landing and taking off. Now there are plans to build a
New School next to this Airport. Please Council Members and Mayor and
City Manager, please address this issue and let the people of Kalispell
know that you are keeping them safe now and into the future.
In an article by Michael Hawthorne published in May 2014 in the Chicago
Tribune, the headline read:
Aviation: Last Major Source Of Toxic Lead In United States
GA fleet of 167,000 aircraft has become the nation's top source of
airborne lead, emitting nearly 500 tons a year, according to the EPA.
Excerpts:
Lead particles from airplane exhaust tend to be concentrated close to
airports, but they also fall widely during flight. About 16 million
people live and 3 million children go to school within a half-mile of an
airport where leaded avgas is sold, the EPA estimates.
Unlike many other pollutants, lead doesn't break down over time and can
linger for years in the top few inches of soil.
Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
have found that airborne lead particles tend to spike on weekends,
likely from recreational flights.
In 2011, the nonprofit Center for Environmental Health sued several
avgas producers and suppliers in California under a state chemical
disclosure law known as Proposition 65,alleging that the companies
failed to warn residents near 25 airports about lead pollution from
piston-engined planes. The case remains pending after a federal judge
threw out a countersuit filed by avgas companies.