|
|
SFO's "Runway Reconfiguration" could shut down windsurfing all along the Peninsula shoreline, both through blockage and through sedimentation that could impact sites well to the south of the airport. Windsurfing aside, this massive project is unnecessary and will undermine the health of the bay forever.
Update: SFO has recently announced a reduction in the amount of bay fill needed. Find out why this has a limited effect when it comes to reducing the environmental impacts. Click here for more info. Update: SFO's Technology Panel finds that new technology could eliminate the majority of delays by 2010 and double the arrivals during poor weather by 2015. Runways might be finished by 2014. Click here for more info. San Francisco International Airport's (SFO) plans to build new runways in the San Francisco Bay. For over a year, SFO has been pushing the message that that the only way to solve delays is to build new runways. Mayor Willie Brown has moved top political advisors and public relations specialists to the airport staff in order to sell this message. The truth is that new runways will do little to solve delays. While SFO blames the delays on weather, the airport's own delay study indicates that the majority of delays are not due to local weather. A large number of delays occur on days when the local weather is good all day long. There are delay solutions that do not require filling the Bay. Many of these alternative solutions will reduce delays in good weather and bad. If new runways do reduce delays, they will only improve the situation during bad weather, and then only after they are completed after the year 2010. SFO has shown a limited interest in pursuing alternatives to filling the Bay. While SFO's planning team tells environmentalists and regulators that they are seriously examining all options, their press team is telling the public that there is no solution other than new runways in the Bay. This is not surprising since SFO is operated as a business that is interested in increasing profits and retaining market share. Shifting some flights to other Bay Area airports might be a good solution for the region as a whole, but it will not benefit SFO's bottom line. While SFO's runway plans will have minimal benefits to the public, it will have serious and permanent impacts on the health of the Bay. The runways will extend far out into the Bay and impede the tidal flows that cleanse the Bay and refresh wetland areas. Most people would be stunned by the size of the project. Since 1970, the Bay has been filled at a rate of 15 acres/year. SFO proposes runways that would fill 600 to 900 acres of the Bay. Two square miles of Bay will be lost to fill and another 5-6 square miles may silt in. We hope that you will take the time to read our report so that you can make an educated decision regarding the runway plans. What SFO bills as a "runway configuration" is in fact an unprecedented reconfiguration of the San Francisco Bay. Fill Update (8/15/01): Tech Update (8/15/01): The Independent Technology Panel found that new procedures using existing technologies could increase the bad weather arrival rates to 45 flights per hour by 2010 and to 60 flights per hour by 2015. On a busy day, SFO handles an average of 33-34 arrivals per hour with approximately 45 flights per hour scheduled to arrive at peak times.
The entire report is available at: http://www.bcdc.ca.gov/ic/ic_sfo/sfoatmtmenu.htm The arrival rate of 60 flights per hour would be achieved using a "paired approach that will take advantage of satellite based navigation that will allow aircraft to share precise information on their location, altitude, speed and heading. While the airport argues that the technological approach may not meet all future demand, neither will the new runways proposed. If the airlines do not start shifting to larger aircraft that can carry more passengers on fewer flights, then none of the hub airports in the U.S | ||||||||||||||||
