South Orange CountyThe El Toro Airport |
The truth about the El Toro Airport is coming out. After months of stonewalling,
(Orange) County staff was forced, by a judge's order, to release secretive El Toro
Airport planning documents for public scrutiny.
ETRPA, a group of the cities most impacted by the airport, wrote to Courtney Wiercioch and
then-Board of Supervisors Chairman William Steiner, asking to see the plans. Finally,
they were forced to sue under the California Public Records Act, and won. The just-released
documents confirmed what many El Toro Airport doubters had been saying about the project:
County planners now acknowledge that a two airport system, utilizing both John Wayne (Orange County
Airport) and El Toro, has big problems and may not work. The County planners admit what
the Air Transport Association told them in 1996: that the airlines will resist using
two airports so close together.
Despite previous denials by the County, it also appears likely that the two military runways,
planned for 70% of all El Toro take-offs, will be abandoned. Both commercial airline pilots
unions have objected, for safety reasons. The released documents show that three of the four
airport lay-outs being studied by County staff would remove these easterly runways. All departures
would be to the north. However, El Toro's two main north-south military runways are too close
together for commercial use and therefore, one of these also will have to be torn up, moved and
rebuilt.
All of the letters mentioned above, from the Air Transport Association, Air Line Pilots Association,
Allied Pilots Association and the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority are available to be
read on-line at the El Toro Airport Website.
Leonard Kranser |
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