By Laura Silagi of Penmar Park area

This is in relation to the forum held 27 April 2013 at SM airport

The Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) Santa Monica Airport Community Forum held a two- part program on September 27th. The first was dedicated to health impacts and the second to our representatives talking about what they could do to help. This is a quick summary. Channel 35 recorded the event and we will send the link to that program when it is available.

Quoting Dr. Richard Jackson, Chair of the UCLA Environmental Health Sciences, “Land use is a health issue.”

Aircraft noise elevates blood pressure leads to psychological distress and learned helplessness. It is especially detrimental to children’s ability to learn. For every 5 decibels above the ambient noise level, children fall 2 months behind in reading. Their memory is affected as well as their ability to concentrate. There are more impacts and we will send a link when we put that talk together. We have thousands of children in the flight pattern.

Ultra-fine particles from jets idling, taking off and landing penetrate deep into the body causing increased blockage of blood vessels, and greater lung inflammation, stunting lung growth in developing children. This lung impairment lasts a lifetime.

Prop planes use leaded fuel and the areas tested near the airport have 2 to 4 times higher lead levels than is normal. Lead causes behavioral changes, loss of developmental skills, attention problems, reduced IQ, and the list goes on.  Lead is highly toxic and cumulative.  The Centers for Disease control says there is no safe level for lead.

The inequity in the airport’s flight pattern, its impacts over Los Angeles neighborhoods and the imbalance in terms of who benefits from the airport were concerns of the audience. Quoting economist Andrea Campbell, “The airport is, what is called a “market failure.” The externalities, i.e. pollution, is not being paid for fairly by the beneficiaries of the airport and indeed, there is no value that can be placed on these externalities. Since there is no dollar amount that can be placed on the health and suffering of those on the ground, it should be closed.”

We learned that both our current Los Angeles city attorney, Carmen Trutanich and his opponent in the upcoming election, Mike Feuer have ideas, both legal and political, to stop the Santa Monica “Fly Neighborly” program which shunts prop planes over Venice and Mar Vista. Mr. Trutanich had more specific legal ideas, and Mr. Feuer stressed talks with Santa Monica City officials.

We learned that our councilman-elect, Mike Bonin is committed to closing the airport, and has a twofold approach. First, to work politically with Santa Monica not to renew the 1984 agreement, and second, to ask the  Los Angeles city attorney to file a lawsuit against Santa Monica if it does renew the 1984 agreement or aviation leases. He is also committed to ending the Santa Monica’s “Fly Neighborly” program.

We learned that Ted Lieu, our state senator is looking for ways the state can help end the pollution from SMO, such as sponsoring a bill to involve CEQA in airport renewals.Our US Representative Henry Waxman committed publicly, in front of 200 people and the news media, to support the closure of the airport if that is what his constituents want. 

We know that the majority of those affected by the airport in Venice and Santa Monica want his p to do just that.  We know this airport and neighborhoods surrounding it are incompatible.