El Toro foes blast county’s environmental report

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- South County leaders weren’t shy about lowering their

sights on Orange County’s responses to questions about the proposed

airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Not long after the county’s Local Redevelopment Authority released 17

volumes of responses, totaling some 11,500 pages, the El Toro Reuse

Planning Authority weighed in on the subject.

A handful of other groups had also submitted comments and concerns,

including Newport Beach, supporters of a runway alternative created by a

retired Newport Beach engineer, the Irvine Co. and dozens or other groups

and individuals.

Not surprisingly, Newport Beach threw its support behind the report,

saying it is “thorough and accurate” and applauding the county for

demonstrating “great sensitivity to the surrounding communities.”

About half of the city’s residents are affected by noise from flights

operating at John Wayne Airport.

Bob Caustin, the founder of Defend the Bay, couldn’t help noticing

what he said was a glaring irony in some of the comments submitted by the

Irvine Co.

In the comments, the company voiced concerns about the possibility of

runoff from the base affecting water quality in Back Bay. Pollution from

that area of the county has been known to flow down San Diego Creek into

the Upper Newport Bay watershed, which dumps into the bay.

Caustin sued the company in June to halt a high-density industrial

project planned for an area to the west of the base.

“Everything they’ve talked about on their properties, they’re saying

about [the county’s plan],” Caustin said. “They’re basically arguing

against the great park. ... They’re advocating making that thing a

developed property.”

The company has not taken an official position on the airport. Heiress

Joan Irvine Smith, however, endorses the South County proposal to install

a central park at the base.

“I would love to see it as a park quite frankly,” Irvine Smith said.

“It could be something quite magnificent.”

On Friday, Paul Eckles, the executive director of the planning

authority, rapped the county’s responses as inadequate.

“They’re just plain not being honest,” Eckles said. “They’re not

dealing from a full deck.”

Eckles accused the county of dodging many of South County’s concerns

-- submitted in the form of more than 1,000 comments in response to the

county’s Environmental Impact Report 573.

He also said the report underestimates the traffic and air-traffic

impacts of the proposed airport on the communities surrounding the base

-- situated at the northern borders of Irvine and Lake Forest.

County airport planners were quick to refute the claims as political

maneuvering.

“Airport opponents clearly have a strategy to delay, delay and sue,

sue,” said Gary Simon, the Local Redevelopment Agency’s executive

director. “[The planning authority] is going to criticize and try to

destroy [the report] any way they can.”

The authority successfully challenged the county’s earlier

environmental analysis, forcing a court-ordered revamp of the traffic and

air-quality impacts.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .