San Francisco Bay Oakland Worldwide Airport on Thursday launched the ultimate environmental affect report for its long-planned airport enlargement undertaking, a doc opponents say incorporates main flaws and demonstrates flagrant disregard for public well being.
The report outlines how modifications in air high quality, greenhouse gasoline emissions, noise, well being hazards and site visitors can be addressed if the airport will get approval to modernize and additional develop the growing older aviation hub in phases over the subsequent six years.
The airport needs to improve its two present terminals and construct a brand new terminal with as much as 16 new gates, replace its decades-old services to satisfy evolving aviation business requirements and enhance operational effectivity and security for passengers and workers.
The airport’s precise footprint wouldn’t broaden below the proposal, however present services can be torn all the way down to make room for the enlargement of worldwide arrival areas. Parking tons and roadways would additionally get makeovers.
A draft report was launched in July 2023. Among the many modifications to the ultimate model of the environmental affect report are an up to date soil and groundwater evaluation, a research to find out if the undertaking will affect burrowing owls’ habitats, and an replace to the noise impacts part of the report. The ultimate report additionally features a group profit settlement that may give East Oakland residents extra say in regards to the undertaking’s impacts on their group.
“All the studies that we did concluded that it did not change our findings that there are no additional significant impacts,’’ said Colleen Liang, director of environmental programs and planning at the Port of Oakland, which oversees the airport.
But representatives from the leading opposition group, Stop OAK Expansion Coalition, are calling on Port of Oakland commissioners to vote against the final environmental impact report at a meeting on Nov. 21 and return it to Port staff for additional work. If commissioners certify the report, the move will greenlight construction on some components of the project that could begin as early as next year, a Port spokesperson said Thursday.
“We further call on the Port commissioners to engage community stakeholders and develop a modernization plan for the airport that protects public health and looks to an environmentally sustainable future,’’ said coalition steering committee member Kay Guinane in a statement.
Stop OAK Expansion Coalition, which is made up of 78 environmental justice, climate, labor, public health, medical and religious groups, said the final environmental impact report failed to include a Health Impact Assessment as requested by the Alameda County Public Health Department in a letter to the Port last October.
“It is deplorable that the Port staff chose to ignore their own county Public Health Department, refusing to hire a public health agency to do the correct health study that the health department requested, to determine the impact that more flights from airport expansion would have on the health of East Oakland children living under the flight paths. Instead, they hired a consulting company to do an engineering study masquerading as a health risk analysis,” mentioned David Foecke, a coalition steering committee member, in an announcement.
Such an evaluation would have examined air air pollution, greenhouse gasoline emissions and noise and vibration, in line with the well being division.
The well being division, in a letter to the port, mentioned East Oakland residents, many inside the airport flight path, are hospitalized or taken to an emergency room for bronchial asthma thrice extra usually than individuals in different components of Alameda County.
Liang mentioned the ultimate environmental affect report does, nonetheless, embrace a human well being threat evaluation, which checked out most cancers dangers, well being hazards, emissions publicity from airport operations amongst different issues.
“It was a robust health risk assessment that we used in the environmental impact report,’’ Liang said. “We actually consulted with the air district and it’s very consistent with today’s industry standards and the federal guidelines.”
The ultimate environmental affect report additionally consists of responses from the Port to greater than 1,000 public feedback. Liang mentioned a majority of these feedback centered round air high quality, greenhouse gasoline emissions, impacts to the Oakland group and noise.
“I understand and appreciate the comments provided,’’ Liang said. “ We are doing everything in our authority to push for zero emissions with or without this proposed project. We really want to be cleaner and greener at the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.”
Port officers mentioned the undertaking will assist the airport meet forecasted regional air journey demand all through the Bay Space over the subsequent twenty years, in step with a projected rise in nationwide air journey. However opponents say the alleged market-based demand for enlargement is “pure fiction.”
The airport is seeing about 80% of pre-pandemic passenger ranges as a result of many enterprise vacationers have opted to satisfy on Zoom as an alternative of flying. Passenger site visitors additionally fell by 4% between fiscal years 2023 and 2024. Liang mentioned the enlargement is required as a result of the airport tasks it can serve practically 25 million passengers a yr by 2038, roughly 14 million greater than it served final yr.
Initially Printed: October 17, 2024 at 4:41 p.m.
