Venice Neighborhood Coalition

Update on Santa Monica Airport.

Santa Monica Airport is establishing Minimum Standards for their operations (see attached).

www.smgov.net

Update:

Santa Monica Airport - Air Quality Study Santa Monica Airport (SMO) has long disproportionately impacted Los Angeles residents through efforts to shift noise and air pollution away from the City of Santa Monica and onto the people Mike represents. Mike and his staff have walked the neighborhood streets abutting SMO many times, frequently s...

STARTING TONIGHT Santa Monica Airport CLOSES COMPLETELY 9pm-7am for runway shortening.

http://smdp.com/judges-ruling-clears-runway-for-construction/162948

Letter from SM Airport Commissioner Joseph Schmitz sent to SM City Council, as well as several community airport activists regarding the air quality study proposed by UCLA Professor Suzanne Paulson.

________________________________________________________________

Dear All,

I'm responding as a research methods expert to Gleam Davis' reply to Alan Levenson because I am convinced that - except for permanently rendering excess SMO runway pavement unusable - the decision to fund the UCLA jet pollution study headed by Dr. Paulson is the most consequential Airport decision that the City Council will make this year.

Largely by happenstance (4 weeks ago), I became aware of and studied Dr. Paulson's March 2017, 9-page grant proposal.

Councilmember Davis has posed (and implied) quite reasonable questions based on common knowledge re the proposed UCLA pollution study.

1. What’s special about Dr. Paulson’s UCLA study? Why don’t we just find another set of researchers to do it?

The UCLA study’s power (and indispensability) rests on the study’s natural experiment design — which in turn depends on its repeated measurements: 1) before, during, and after SMO runway closure; 2) the project’s use of cutting-edge instrumentation; 3) Dr. Paulson’s expertise; and 4) the design’s ability to link the spectrum of jet pollutants to specific aircraft operations.

· Only this design quantifies Consent Decree impacts on SMO pollution because it compares: 1) pre-shortening jet ops, 2) no jet ops, and 3) post shortening jet ops using optimal sensors.
o The baseline “no jet” pollution provides essential information that can be used to protect residents’ interests going forward. That’s why squandering the 6-month period after the research was proposed harmed this community.
· Only this design features improved sensors (very expensive to researchers but not the City) located in more areas that can measure carbon monoxide & dioxide, nitrogen & sulfur compounds, & VOC emissions – in addition to the black carbon and ultra-fine particulates measured in prior studies.

· It would be ethically questionable: 1) to administratively delay addressing Dr. Paulson’s study for 5 months, and 2) then replace that UCLA design with some consultant’s hasty effort. Such a study would inevitably draw upon Dr. Paulson's intellectual property.



2. How would the City use the study findings?

The legal and political status of SMO remains far from settled. The FAA has a long history of not keeping its agreements with the City. Deep-pocketed aviation interests continue to lobby Congress, FAA, and Administration decision-makers. SMAA has stepped-up local funding and outreach for its propaganda.

· Only this design documents the extent of positive City Council Consent Decree (implied) reductions of jet pollutant impacts on residents.
o Funding this study demonstrates the measure of City Council’s transparency and accountability in its commitment to obtain local control of Airport land and impacts.

· Only this study provides fact-based knowledge and provides an SMO-specific jet pollution model that can’t otherwise be obtained.
o Given an US Environmental Protection Agency actually committed to its mission, Dr. Paulson’s study may provide one basis for limiting national and local GA aviation jet pollutants before 2029.

· Only this study gives City decision-makers incontrovertible jet pollution evidence to make informed future SMO decisions in the face of ongoing legal Consent Decree challenges and the inevitable pressures that aviation interests will continue to mount at national and local levels.

· Until a future 2028 City Council formally directs SMO closure, SMO remains a viable airport that continues to divert hugely valuable public resources to private gains. This study should be available to residents, City staff, and City Council. That can't happen unless this City Council acts now.

3. Doesn’t Dr. Paulson have an irreconcilable conflict of interest? (Here I respond as a frequent research grant reviewer for the US and EU governments and a research methods expert multiple research teams with grants totaling several $millions from US and EU agencies.)

No; neither during her tenure as an Airport Commissioner when she proposed the study or now that she has resigned from the Airport Commission.

· Dr. Paulson does/will not draw any salary from the research. Thus, she donates her project supervision and scientific expertise toward the City’s acquisition of vital applied knowledge.

· The research is not conducted by a private citizen, nor will it benefit any private entity. This proposal is (rightly) a contract between our City and our State university for public, peer-reviewed research that has immense practical implications for Santa Monica and its residents.

· Santa Monica can't possibly obtain similar useful SMO jet aircraft pollution knowledge. The City can’t afford to buy this research – We have to would pay a prohibitive “expert” consultant premium like that for the airfield design contract.
· UCLA has: 1) huge sunk costs in their ongoing university program – world-class researchers, expert post-doctoral researchers, and expensive equipment that would be, in effect, freely-loaned to the City. See http://people.atmos.ucla.edu/paulson/

· Santa Monica thus obtains comprehensive knowledge at a tiny fraction of the UCLA sunk-costs and the total research project expenses.

· The benefit to Santa Monica lies in its absolute timeliness coupled with our special need for this policy-relevant knowledge.

· UCLA’ benefits are: 1) reputational, and 2) the advances for its scientific mission.
o The UCLA team benefits from their later academic publication and dissemination of scientific results. These extensive, time-consuming efforts are not supported by City funds, but the City benefits from the data-collection and analysis – and a final report which the City obtains as a grant deliverable.


Cordially,

Joe Schmitz, PhD

Home Recent epidemiological studies have shown a strong relationship between particulate pollution and health outcomes, including mortality. Determining the ‘causative agent’ in particles responsible for damaging health is the subject of increasing study, but many questions remain.

By Niki Cervantes
Staff Writer
September 7, 2017 -- An attempt by a Louisiana congressman to de-fund enforcement of a controversial pact closing Santa Monica Airport by 2028 has been blocked, a top City official said Wednesday.

Ralph Abraham of the Fifth District of the U.S. House of Representatives, filed an amendment to a appropriations bill to stop funding for carrying out the consent decree reached in January by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the City Council, said Nelson Hernandez, senior advisor to the City Manager.

Hernandez said the amendment was denied, and thanked Ted Lieu, whose 33rd Congressional district includes Santa Monica, for helping to block it.

Abraham’s amendment sought to block any funds from being used to “administer, enforce, or implement in any manner” the January 30 agreement between the Santa Monica City Council and the FAA ("City, FAA Agree to Close Santa Monica Airport in 2028," January 28, 2017).

He expressed concerns over the consent decree shortly after its initial approval, saying it departed from the long-standing principle that the federal government will preserve airport infrastructure.”

“The Agency's Congressionally-authorized mission includes ensuring that airports remain safe and efficient while also protecting our entire aviation system.,” Abraham wrote to the head of the FAA and the federal Department of Transportation.

Meant to end a decades-long battle for control of SMO between the City and the FAA, the consent decree also cleared the way to dramatically reduce the airport's sole runway, making it too short for much jet traffic. That project is underway ("Santa Monica City Council Approves Contract to Shorten Municipal Airport Runway," August 10, 2017).

It also ended protracted litigation between the FAA and the City, although the aviation industry continues to fight it in court.

The National Business Aviation Association is trying to halt the decree. The U.S. Court of Appeals in May, however, denied to FAA’s request dismiss the case, instead referring the issue to a panel of judges ("Circuit Court Denies Injunction to Halt Implementation of Santa Monica Airport Closure Deal," May 5, 2017).

Among others involved in the aeronautics industry, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) said late last month it filed a friend-of-the-court brief against the decree.

AOPA said the decree “would not allow the public to file complaints with the FAA regarding issues at the airport that the agency would then be required to fairly and fully resolve according to a legal procedure.”

In the brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, AOPA said the public has a right to challenge airports that are “disregarding their legal obligations and to make sure they uphold their responsibilities and commitments under federal law.”

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) also filed a separate amicus brief.

City Manager Rick Cole called the two briefs "predictable."

“There is nothing that strengthens their contorted arguments in this desperation lawsuit,” Cole told the Lookout. “They will not overturn a Consent Decree that settled long-standing litigation between the City of Santa Monica and the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Much as aviation interests would like to get another day in court, the future of the land owned by the people of Santa Monica returns to local control at the end of 2028.”

In case you thought the FAA can't lose in court...

August 29, 2017 - The US Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. has ruled in favor of the City of Phoenix and the Historic Neighborhoods in their lawsuits against the FAA over flight path changes.

Read the decision order... http://bit.ly/2wlT45W
and the decision details... http://bit.ly/2wfv99X

www.skyharbor.com

In case you thought the FAA can't lose in court...

August 29, 2017 - The US Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. has ruled in favor of the City of Phoenix and the Historic Neighborhoods in their lawsuits against the FAA over flight path changes.

Read the decision order... http://bit.ly/2wlT45W
and the decision details... http://bit.ly/2wfv99X

City Council Does Not Direct Staff To Demo 1500' Of Runway By Year End. Future Demolition Remains Uncertain.

At the May 24th Santa Monica City Council Meeting the council voted on the centered runway design and repainting of the runway to 3500'. This work is slated to be completed by the end of the Year. If completed, it will have taken 11 months to repaint the runway and taxiways and remove and move a few dozen runway, taxiway and navigation lights.

After the usual community input and little discussion, the council directed the staff to "look into options" regarding what to do with the 1500' of runway that the consent decree eliminated. It is baffling why this additional step is needed since it was already announced by the city manager on January 28th that 1500' of runway would be removed. This further study is yet another delay that favors aviation and puts further stress upon the surrounding community as to what will happen next and when. (continued at link)

http://mailchi.mp/1dc119ab1657/nojets-special-report-runway?e=891fe0fafa

NoJets Special Report - Runway

It's as if they think we're too dumb to notice their obstruction and obvious refusal to uphold Measure LC and the will (legal vote) of the people. When, or how, can we hold politicians accountable? The system is broken and while a bunch of hogs are at the trough, we are getting slaughtered.

http://mailchi.mp/348fc58b15cf/3500-means-3500-immediately-means-immediately?e=891fe0fafa

(excerpt)
It has taken almost four months for the City Staff to draft a resolution regarding the shortening of the runway to 3500'. The resolution and options will be discussed and voted on this Wednesday night, May 24th, at City Hall. Notably absent in this resolution is any mention of removing even one foot of the old 5000' runway. The proposed plans, modifications, and paint job are not scheduled to be completed until the end of this year.This is not what was promised by City Manager Rick Cole, Mayor Winterer, and Council Members when the Decree was announced with great fanfare.
Close the airport now, begin work, and reopen when promises are met. --Alan Levenson

3500' Means 3500', Immediately means Immediately to draft a resolution regarding the shortening of the runway to 3500'. The resolution and options will be discussed and voted on this Wednesday night, May 24th, at City Hall. Notably absent in this resolution is any mention of removing even one foot of the old 5000' runway. The proposed plans, modif...

SMO Consent Decree madness - runway shortening likely another ruse.

http://aireform.com/draft-earthen-emas-how-to-make-the-most-of-the-ksmo-consent-decree/

Earthen EMAS: How to Make the Most of the KSMO Consent Decree What is going on in Santa Monica? Is the City honoring the will of the people who rejected massive campaigning by aviation lobbyists, and resoundingly approved Measure LC back in 2014? Or, is the C…

The video produced for the latest Santa Monica protest rally is an outstanding example for how to conduct a peaceful and informative protest. Other aviation impact activists can learn from viewing this.

One point that comes through repeatedly within the rally is the deep concern the people have about health and aviation pollution. Incredibly, in the Consent Decree signed earlier that week, both FAA and the City were totally indifferent to these concerns; indeed, the only mention within the 63-page formal document is this paragraph, where FAA is pressing the City to formally abandon all environmental concerns.

courtesy - http://aireform.com/video-of-the-february-4-2017-protest-at-santa-monica-airport/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoSHy0xqc8s

Video of the February 4, 2017 Protest at Santa Monica Airport