Palomar Airport: Will the FAA, County, & Carlsbad Honor Their Fiduciary Duties?, Blog #27

Today a simple reminder to Carlsbad, County and FAA officials and managers that even 5-year olds know that promises are solemn.

Kids know that hooking pinky fingers seals a promise.  Not even crossing other fingers breaks the deal.

Implausible Deniability

Until 2012, the FAA, County, and Carlsbad officials could plausibly claim that the County was complying with the Carlsbad CUP 172 general aviation limit and that the Palomar landfill posed no safety or environmental risks.  That time has passed.  

The Risks

What happens when a 90,000 pound aircraft flying at 125 miles an hour crashes into the Palomar landfill and its methane collection system?  We don’t know.  The County wont’ tell us.  But we do know several things:

• As soldiers returning from Afghanistan know, an explosion – even though leaving a body unmarked on the outside – can turn a person’s internal organs to mush and scramble the brain.
• County consultants have on several occasions found Palomar landfill methane gas emissions to exceed regulatory explosive limits.
• The underground Palomar landfill fire that burned for about 5 months several years ago may or may not have created unfilled structural voids in the landfill. That landfill lies next to the Palomar runway.

What Could the County Do?

• County consultants could assess the forces created by a crashing plane and the shock wave impact on the landfill methane collection system.  If no risk of fire or explosion exists, great.  Just say so.  And provide the data and expert analysis supporting the conclusion.
• County consultants could advise the public of what landfill cleanup would be necessary if 2,000 gallons of aviation fuel leaked 15 to 25 feet into the landfill and groundwater.  Would the landfill then be classified as a hazardous landfill?  Could the landfill remain at Palomar?  Or would federal and state law require the contaminated trash to be relocated?  If so, at what cost?  For how long would the airport close?  Who pays: Palomar Airport or County Landfill Enforcemen?   Airport users or taxpayers?
• Can the County lower the methane collection system and build it with materials able to withstand a crashing plane to lower the safety risk?

Isn’t it curious that the FAA and County are willing to spend hundreds of hours avoiding (FAA) or answering (County) public records requests (as required by law) over a 10-month period but duck questions when a proper environmental and safety analysis could be quickly made?   

Those with nothing to hide, hide nothing.   

Are pinkie promises more solemn than the fiduciary duties of public officials?