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Public Commentary The following letter was written to Republic Airport officials concerning the revised environmental comments the airport made to the issues raised by the Woodland Civic Association concerning proposed improvements to the airport. Dear Editor: Responses in the Revised EA do not address many of the major concerns expressed in our May 19, 2006 comments. For example, our first sentence mentioned that the proposed hangars are inconsistent with previous plans, but this comment was simply ignored as was our third paragraph which discussed the airport's densely populated and constrained location. The convoluted manner of the responses is confusing and should be changed so that direct relevant responses are provided for each comment. Ignoring the airport's location does not change the fact that Republic Airport is located in the midst of major roads and densely populated areas. Larger aircraft are generally associated with more air pollution, more noise pollution, greater damage from impact and fire if an aircraft crashes, (larger, full fuel tanks can ignite enormous fires, especially on take-off.) The significant long-term environmental effects of the toxic emissions that are forcefully propelled downward by larger aircraft on take-off must be acknowledged and studied. The synergistic effect of aircraft emissions such as fine particulate matter, with the already unacceptable ozone level, deserves further review. These have not been fully addressed. We once again request that a cumulative environmental Impact Statement be prepared for Republic Airport. This is extremely important because the Revised EA, identifies "Reasonably Foreseeable Future Projects," that would add to the negative environmental impacts already created by the large increase in aircraft operations by planes weighing over 60,000 pounds. One example of the highly controversial issue of larger aircraft was evidenced by the 800 people who attended the August 3, 2000 Public Information Meeting to protest airport design changes to accommodate large Group III aircraft. The social implications of a larger number of large, loud, low flying aircraft over-flying nearby residential communities must also include the negative effect on home values and should not be minimized. Piece-mealing major, precedent-setting projects must not be tolerated. It is obvious that prior Findings of No Significant Impact permitted projects that now place a larger number of large aircraft only hundreds of feet over the heads of thousands of nearby residents, students, workers and even golfers on Bethpage's famous Black Course, which lies directly under the ILS, less than two miles from the airport. Larger numbers of large aircraft are a major concern for our community because we are located directly under the ILS approach to Runway 14/32, which would be utilized by these larger aircraft in inclement weather conditions. Today, with major concerns about fuel availability, it is unconscionable to promote large corporate aircraft operations that are considered to be one of the most environmentally harmful modes of transportation. Not only do these aircraft consume a disproportionate amount of fuel per passenger mile but they also expel large amounts of harmful pollutants and create undesirable noise pollution. It is difficult to comprehend why the size of a hangar door is not provided for environmental review. This is especially important since the applicant's existing 38,250 square feet of hangar space accomodates 20 aircraft, but the plan states that 18 aircraft are to be added for the proposed 70,000 square feet of hangar space. It appears that either the two proposed hangars are expected to house even larger aircraft, or the amount of future noise is being underestimated by not acknowledging the potential number of additional aircraft that could fit into the hangars. Therefore, it is important to have an answer to our question of whether the hangars could accommodate aircraft weighing even more than 90,000 pounds. We request that the applicant's proposal to build hangars for aircraft that exceed Republic's 60,000 aircraft weight limit be denied. We believe these hangars would set a precedent and would be inconsistent with previous airport plans as noted in our May 19, 2006 comments. Robert Queen, President Woodland Civic Association Copies of an Environmental Assessment for proposed improvements are available at 7150 Republic Airport, Room 216, E. Farmingdale and the Farmingdale Public Library. The NYSDOT is accepting written comment on this document. The official comment period will be extended to May 31, 2007. All comments on this Environmental Assessment should be sent to: Airport Manager, 7150 Republic Airport, Rm 216, E. Farmingdale, NY 11735.
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