Would El Toro flights pass over here?

Jasmine Lee

Antiairport activists speculated Tuesday that the proposed El Toro

airport could send commercial jets over the Newport Coast, creating more

noise problems for the community that has strongly supported a second

Orange County airport.

The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of South County cities,

reviewed the county’s environmental report on the project and concluded

that the facts -- such as the possibility of jet noise over Newport Beach

-- were buried in the technical sections of the 39-volume study.

The county has proposed to spend $2.9 billion to turn the 4,700-acre

airfield into an international airport. While Newport Beach residents who

want to limit expansion at John Wayne Airport welcome the project, South

County communities have criticized the plans for an airport at El Toro.

The latest attack is on the county’s environmental study, released late

last month, and its highly technical reading.

Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for the planning authority, said that the truth

about the project is only found between the lines, in the technical parts

of the report.

For example, Tom O’Malley, a retired Marine colonel who is a consultant

to the antiairport group, said fighter planes used to take off from an El

Toro runway that leads directly over Corona del Mar. The county has

promised not to use that particular path, but O’Malley said planes could

be forced to use the runway during certain weather conditions.

“If the county insists that it will not use runway 25, then, on many

days, the airport will be closed down,” O’Malley said.

He also said there is no way to estimate how much Newport Beach would

suffer from El Toro noise because the county’s environmental study failed

to explore that issue.

However, El Toro advocates said the county eliminated runway 25 from its

plans years ago. David Ellis, a spokesman for the Newport Beach-based

Airport Working Group, said that no flights from El Toro would create a

noise problem for Newport Beach.

Ellis also said it is not up to O’Malley -- or even the county -- to

determine which runways are safe.

“Safety is determined by the FAA, not ETPRA,” Ellis said. “If the FAA

says we cannot use the runways, then we probably won’t have an airport.”

The group, which is supporting a second Orange County airport in an

effort to keep John Wayne Airport from expanding, is convinced that

antiairport organizations are trying to scare Newport Beach residents

with the threat of noise from El Toro.

Waters said the coalition is not trying to frighten residents, but to

open their eyes to what she calls “the real airport” proposed at El Toro.

Waters said it is the county that is trying to scare residents into

supporting the new airport with the idea of expanding John Wayne -- a

notion that she said will never become a reality.

She said the Orange County economy does not rely on the development of a

second airport, nor is there a passenger demand for one.

“It’s now been seven years since this county has been debating this

problem,” she said. “Oddly, there is no study on record that explores

this question.”

An advertisement for John Wayne even touts the airport as “crowd-free.”

Waters also criticized the county for failing to adequately address

traffic, housing, health and economic issues surrounding El Toro.

She proposed that if Newport Beach residents join with the antiairport

efforts, there would be no El Toro project and no John Wayne expansion.

Former Newport Beach City Councilman Tom Edwards said the possibility of

an alliance is slim. He said there is no truth to the claim that flights

from El Toro would create noise for the city.

“It’s all political rhetoric,” he said. “This is not a new analysis.

These have all been studied and dismissed.”

Edwards said it is the possibility of John Wayne expansion that should

worry people.

The county’s report stated that if a second airport is not built, the

500-acre John Wayne Airport could be tripled in size. Antiairport

organizations say it will never happen, but Edwards warned that if it

did, it could devastate areas in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

“It would condemn the whole area around John Wayne,” Edwards said. “Now

that’s a frightening alternative.”