R-A-G-E
Residents Against Gillespie Expansion
COMING SOON! to an airport near you...
"GILLESPIE JET-PORT"
AIR TRAFFIC - Air traffic will increase with the proposed 400 new hangars, bringing the total number of hangars to 900! (More than any General Aviation Airport in the world).
LINDBERGH FIELD EXTENSION - Gillespie Airport will become an outreach extension of the "near capacity," Lindbergh San Diego Airport.
STREET TRAFFIC - Bradley Street bridge, surface streets, and Highways 52, 67, and 8 will become extremely impacted.
NOISE - More street and aircraft noise will degrade your quality of life.
BIGGER PLANES - Larger airplanes, jets, and helicopters create more noise.
NIGHT FLIGHTS - Nighttime jet and helicopter activities have been proposed.
As the airport grows, it will be necessary to have more night takeoffs and landings.
POLLUTION - Smog, which is already a problem in East County, will increase dramatically.
HEALTH - Within 20-30 miles of small airports, aircraft emissions are linked to cancer, asthma, brain tumors, emphysema, heart disease, leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, kidney damage, and numerous other conditions.
PROPERTY VALUE - The BELL STUDY found that property values near jet airports decreased an average of 27.4%, and decreases were sometimes as much as 42.6%.
DEGRADING YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE
Since 2001, Gillespie Airport has been making plans for a major expansion. The lease for the Cajon Speedway will not be renewed in 2005. 400 hangars and numerous support facilities are in the plans to be added to the already 500 hangars. Gillespie Airport will then be a major extension of Lindbergh, with hundreds of jets and flights every minute of the day and night, degrading your quality of life, robbing you of sleep, and polluting the environment. We are already feeling the impact of increased activity over our communities. We can no longer enjoy our homes, gardens, and parks, without constant interruptions from new helicopters and new commuter jets. Many households no longer sleep with the windows open thanks to late night and early morning flights. Schools, churches, and preschools are directly under the flight paths, and the helicopters do not have to stay in any flight path. They can fly over ANY neighborhood at extremely low elevations.
HELICOPTER PILOT TRAINING
A helicopter "pilot training " school opened at Gillespie in 2004. A helicopter pilot-in-training is 10 times more likely to crash than a jet liner. We can expect 44 crashes for every 100,000 flight hours in the R-22's and R-44's that are being used to train in. The school started with 120 students and 10 training helicopters, with plans for major expansion as space becomes available. These students can fly "solo" over any homes, schools, churches and communities with as little as 20 flight hours. If you think they aren't in YOUR neighborhood, think again. The helicopter pilots-in-training are practicing over ALL San Diego communities, in an effort to log thousands of flight hours.
A MAJOR HEALTH THREAT
Aircraft operations cause massive amounts of deadly air, water, noise, and ground pollution. The 20-30 mile area around an airport is known as the "Poison Circle." Airports can produce over 200 air toxins. Some of the emissions, aviation is responsible for, are: Nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, naphthalene, benzene (a known carcinogen), formaldehyde (a suspected carcinogen), and 1,3 butadiene (a suspected carcinogen). Airport pollution rivals incinerator, power plant, and refinery emissions. There is no health agency watching airports. Most emissions are exempt from being disclosed, and the few that are regulated, are self-reported and grossly underreported - essentially making this an unregulated industry. The Federal Aviation Association (FAA), which is supposed to regulate the airline industry, also works to promote the industry. When a citizen invoked the name of the FAA during a meeting with a major airline senior executive, the executive's dismissive response was, "FAA?...We ARE the FAA." Aviation is the only form of transportation not regulated in any significant way to reduce environmental impact. A study of the Seattle-Tacoma Airport found that infant mortality near the airport was 50% greater, heart disease was 57% greater, cancer deaths were 36% greater (31% of those were lung cancer), and deaths from all causes were 48 percent greater. Average life expectancy for airport neighbors was 70.4 years, compared to Seattle's average of 76 years. The poison circle around airports has become a chemical grim reaper. Studies have linked airports with cancer, asthma, liver damage, lung disease, lymphoma, depression, myeloid leukemia, brain tumors, emphysema, heart disease, Hodgkin's disease, kidney damage, and numerous other conditions. American Psychological Society, Vol. 6, No. 6, November 1995, P.333 Chronic Noise and Psychological Stress, states: "Psychophysiological stress processes linked to coronary heart disease; central cognitive processes, including speech perception, memory, and basic reading skills; motivation; and emotional affect are all associated with chronic exposure to (airport) noise among children."
THE ROLE OF THE FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has never been responsive to noise complaints. With no accountability to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or local jurisdictions, the FAA is legally immune from any sort of regulation outside of direct intervention by the US Congress. Congress, being heavily lobbied by the airline industry, has historically acted in the best interests of the airlines, with little or no recognition of the very real costs being borne by those of us in the flight areas. Helicopters and commuter planes are thus free to route their flights low over heavily populated communities. The net effect of this airline industry lobbying is that our residential neighborhoods are subsidizing the aviation industry more than ever.
ENTER "RAGE"
A citizen's organization, Residents Against Gillespie Expansion, or "RAGE," has been formed to address commercial air traffic, and air traffic noise over our communities. RAGE was formed because existing procedures for reducing air noise and air traffic are not working. The bureaucracies attempt to diffuse the public outrage without correcting the problems. Increased air traffic will increase their revenues. They are not concerned with the fact that it will ruin our lives.
