In between the rock and the hard place of maximizing its current location and trying to secure a new one, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority recently released a lengthy draft of potential environmental impacts from proposed improvements to Lindbergh Field.
The report is currently up for public review and comments, which will be considered and incorporated into a final document later this year.
According to the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), some of the most significant adverse effects would include a reduction in air quality and an increase in acute health impacts. The EIR does not foresee considerable impacts to noise or land use in surrounding areas.
The EIR is a full-disclosure, informational document used to evaluate the merits of a project and inform decision makers and the public of direct or indirect environmental effects. It also must plan for mitigation measures where an impact is discovered, and evaluate alternatives to be considered alongside the proposed project.
The report is a required step in the Airport Master Plan process, which aims to make the airport functions more efficient for passengers and airlines as it reaches capacity. Improvements include new gates at Terminal 2, new and larger aircraft parking, new vehicle parking, reconfiguration of certain streets, and changes to Taxiways C and D. The $500 million master plan does not include any expansions of Lindbergh’s single-runway, which cannot realistically accommodate more than 260,000 annual operations, or landings and take offs.
In this case, the EIR compared three options: the master plan, a back-up alternative for the east terminal and no project whatsoever. Some of the environmental areas of concern that were reviewed include impacts to the area’s aesthetics, air and water quality, historical resources, endangered species, coastal zone, noise and traffic.
The authority found that air quality and human health would have significant irreversible environmental changes. The former would result from increased emissions of CO and NO2. The latter refers to a potential increase in acute, or short-term, health impacts in school, park and residential areas.
The report said there would be no other lasting environmental changes with the master plan’s implementation.
Management consultant and Airport Noise Advisory Committee representative Lance Murphy said he doesn’t believe the findings that there will be relatively little impact to the community as the airport grows.
“Either I’m stupid, they’re stupid, or somebody’s lying,” he said.
Murphy spends a lot of his free time focusing on airport-related noise and started SANNoise.org with other concerned community members to inform peninsula residents of the increasingly negative impacts of living under the flight path.
Lindbergh is currently at 220,000 annual operations, leaving room to grow, and with that growth comes more traffic, noise, pollution and land use problems, he added.
Murphy evidenced plans to expand over-night aircraft parking that would allow for more early-morning departures and late-night arrivals, though the EIR states that there would be no impact to cumulative noise.
But Paul Webb, airport authority planner, said that the finding did not compare noise after the improvements to current noise levels.
“The noise impacts are very similar whether we build the terminal or not because there is going to be the natural growth and increase in number of operations,” Webb explained.
It is unclear whether mitigations are in place to address the impacts of simply reaching capacity. The EIR focuses solely on impacts beyond those already expected, exempting the master plan from addressing the growth that will take place with or without the improvements.
According to 2004 growth forecasts, the airport should reach capacity after 2015. Capacity refers to the number of planes that can land and take off from an airport’s runways, similar to the number of cars that can travel on a highway. No matter how efficient the airport, the runway ultimately limits aircraft traffic.
But passenger volumes have already surpassed the two-year-old predictions. At the current rate of growth, the airport will max out by 2009.

Angela Shafer-Payne, vice president of strategic planning for the airport authority, said that if operations continue at the recent pace, the authority’s board could authorize a new growth forecast study.
“Our forecasts both in operations and passengers jumped out there more rapidly than we had anticipated back in 2004,” she said, adding that the authority should have a better idea about the rate of growth by mid-July.
Whether sooner or later, Shafer-Payne said that travelers can expect increased ticket prices due to decreased airline competition, difficulty securing a flight at the last minute, and longer lines at the airport when capacity is reached. She also cautioned that the 260,000 mark is not set in stone, as capacity could extend to 280,000 depending on aircraft size.
The draft EIR was released in May and is part of a $1.5 million state and federal environmental review process that must take place in the public arena. In addition to personally briefing community groups, airport authority staff will attend local events, including the Ocean Beach Street Fair on Saturday, June 24, to answer questions and hand out copies.
“[Our approach is] to put [the document] out for 120 days to seek community input to see if there is anything that we have overlooked or that the community has a concern about that we need to address,” Shafer-Payne said.
Written comments can be submitted to the authority through Sept. 18. They will be incorporated into the final EIR, which will also be made public and presented to the airport authority board for certification a few months later. Once approved, the authority can begin the design phase of the plan. Construction is tentatively slated for 2008.
The improvements at San Diego’s sole major airport are planned to take place concurrently with the site selection process to find a new airport location. Shafer-Payne said that the November ballot initiative to pursue joint-use of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar could affect the course or timeline of Lindbergh’s master plan.