By Martin Rubin and Ping Ho Your column here
IT WAS APRIL 15, 2002 WHEN I FIRST MET Ping Ho at a Santa Monica Task Force on the Environment meeting. Her son Jake Bloch, then a 7th grade John Adams Middle School student, presented the results of his science fair project, a study of ultrafine particulate emissions adjacent to the Santa Monica Airport, titled “Santa Monica Airport: Is it ruining our neighborhood?”
Jake was able to show high levels of toxic particulates that correlated with aircraft activity and infiltrated the community. Jake’s project was scientifically supported by John R. Froines (UCLA), Andrea Hricko (USC), Charles Kersey (California Air Resources Board — CARB), Jim Lerner (CARB), David Mazzera (CARB), and Bill Piazza (Los Angeles Unified School District — Office of Environmental Health and Safety) and, of course, his mother, Ping Ho.
It therefore seems appropriate that both Ping and I collaborate in presenting this commentary to the public regarding the preliminary results of the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s airports study.
During the planning stages of this airports study, the community learned that the objectives were not designed to address community health risks and odor concerns. As a member of the airports study working group, I asked Ping to attend the first meeting to help with the methodology and protocol. With Ping’s help, the SCAQMD agreed to do an add-on study that would measure ultra-fine particles.
As planning meetings continued, I learned of the difficulties in placing air-sampling monitors. I learned that samples were taken over periods of time which would be inadequate to measure the short spurts of individual jet emissions. When mixed with either 8 hour or 24 hour samples, single event spikes are averaged in and the result appears close to the background (everywhere) air quality. This is what the airports study objective was intended to do; to compare the air around SMO and Van Nuys airports with the air in the south coast basin, which we all know is some of the worst air in the world.
As I see it, this study has been able to do two things. It showed a clear elevation in air-borne lead at and near the airport that is due to the leaded fuel of the piston planes. It also showed that ultrafine-particle counts had spikes correlating with aircraft operations.
So five years later, the SCAQMD’s preliminary results are in agreement with the project findings of a seventh grader.
It was apparent during the planning stages that the community needed a more specific study to address the SMO impacts, hence the introduction of Assemblyman Ted Lieu’s bills, but there were those who felt it was better to wait for the study’s results before deciding what steps should be taken next.
In a clear case of, “I told you so,” Jake Bloch has shown us that this is not rocket science. The community has for well over 10 years complained of the foul smell of jet fumes that have only gotten worse.
The community has weighed in heavily on the outcome of the SCAQMD study, not only in the gathering of data on ultrafine particles, but also in the gathering of two weeks of data on aircraft activity at Santa Monica Airport, which enabled the SCAQMD to link aircraft activity to pollution in the community. This was the direct result of pressure put on the city of Santa Monica due to the attempted passage of AB 2501, which would have demanded that the city do a yearlong study of aircraft activity for precisely this purpose.
The SCAQMD is also about to experience another “I told you so.”
During the gathering of data for the study, the SCAQMD took 1-minute “grab samples,” which means that the persons checking the instrumentation also noted odor patterns in one-minute increments. Based on observations reported in Jake’s study, the SCAQMD will find an association between the odors and ultrafine particle levels. At all locations in Jake’s study fumes were associated with peak ultrafine particle levels, and the highest levels were generated by jet aircraft idling and taxiing.
It is time to move forward on research linking aircraft activity to emissions and odors in the community. AB 700 was an attempt to do just that. Absent the political will of our local elected officials to pass such a bill or fund such a study, the community may once again take matters into its own hands and say, “I told you so.”
PING HO is a member of Friends of Sunset Park Airport Committee and a member of Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution (CRAAP). MARTIN RUBIN is the director of CRAAP.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 2, 2008. Read the original PDF.