Expansion
may add to pollution
By Jack Schneider
On-line Forty-Niner
As
a 747 jet soars over Cal State Long Beach
heading into the airport, ears begin to
tremble from the engine noise.
People around the campus, and the surrounding
area could be in danger, according to Lynn
Hetherington, board member of the group
LB-Hush.
One of the goals of LB-Hush, is to fight
the pollution and noise released from airplanes
flying into the Long Beach Airport.
“We are looking to stop the expansion of
the airport until an environmental approach
can be done,” Hetherington said. “The city
hasn’t been aggressive with the legal actions
involving the pollution.”
One of the dangers affecting students and
children is the chance of Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease, Hetherington said.
Cleaning up the amount of pollution from
airplanes has been a controversial issue
for quite some time, said Sharon Diggs-Jackson,
public affairs spokeswoman for the Long
Beach Airport.
“Long Beach Airport is one of the busiest
airports covering corporate jets, commercial
airlines, to military aircrafts,” Diggs-Jackson
said.
Although airplane pollution only accounts
for 2 percent to 5 percent of pollutants,
airport expansion and more flights could
double the amount, said Noel Ludwig, lecturer
in the geography department.
Ludwig said that the most amount of pollution
is released when a plane reaches 500 feet,
while descending into the runway.
Engine manufacturers are continually developing
ways to limit the amount of pollutants from
777’s and 747’s according to Boeing Commercial
Airlines spokeswoman Mary Jean Olsen.
“Right now we are constantly working on
limiting pollution. Noise is very important
to the community and we are developing different
ways to mitigate the noise,” Olsen said.
According to the Boeing Web site, Boeing
airplanes, such as a 747, carry twice the
fuel efficiency as those built 30 years
ago, and compared with 50 years ago, it
is a 70 percent reduction.
Long Beach Airport does not monitor or keep
track of pollution records, Diggs-Jackson
said.
One issue involving airport expansion is
with the commercial airliner Jet Blue.
“There are several new gates in which Jet
Blue might get an option to occupy them,”
Ludwig said.
Already, Long Beach Airport has 37 total
incoming flights from airlines and will
only allow 41 flights into the airport,
Diggs-Jackson said.
With an increasing number of flights and
more emission fuel, Hetherington said that
the zone Long Beach is located in could
be even more affected.
“Long Beach is already known as a non-attainment
zone,” Hethertington said. “There are impacted
regards to air quality and expansions of
jet fueling and servicing could increase
traffic, having an adverse impact.”
In a global perspective, other countries
have new methods in tracking the amount
of pollutants, making sure they do not expose
too much hazardous material to the skies.
“Countries such as Switzerland have emission
fuel tracks on airplanes,” Ludwig said.
Hetherington said that students could take
action if they feel that airplane traffic
and pollutants harm their environment.
“Students can become very proactive in the
community by being vocal about the situation
and demonstrating that people aren’t in
favor of a noisy environment,” Hetherington
said.
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