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CRMA |
Communities for a Responsible Mather Airport |
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The Mather Issue |
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To fully understand the issue of cargo operations at Mather, all you need to see is an excerpt from an August 20, 2003 memo from the Sacramento County Airport System. It states: “On October 16, 2001, the Board of Supervisors determined two potential roles for Mather airport: 1. Dedicated to air cargo use with some general aviation uses 2. Dedicated to air cargo use with emphasis on facilities to support air cargo hub operations with some general aviation uses.” The difference between these two roles is huge. The first meets Sacramento regional cargo needs, and the second creates a major cargo hub for transshipment of freight having little to do with Sacramento County. Even so, Sacramento County is vigorously working to make option #2 a reality. (See the Quotes page for details.) Preserving the West Coast Air Cargo Hub potential has been listed as the number one priority on Sacramento County Airport System briefing charts and is an integral part of the County’s airport Master Plan scope of work. Consequently, the plan contains all the features needed to create a major hub with dozens of large, noisy freightliners landing each night, swapping cargo and departing for distant cities. The potential consequences for residents of Sacramento and El Dorado Counties are enormous, including noise pollution, declining property values, and a degradation of quality of life, not to mention the tangential impacts from sleep loss as noisy planes fly overhead at night. Air pollution in the Sacramento area, already one of the worst air pollution areas, will be increased! El Dorado County ranks slightly below Sacramento County in air quality, according to a recent report, but..."Although Sacramento County has more code-red ozone days, meaning unhealthy over hours of exposure for the general population, El Dorado County has more code-orange ozone days--unhealthy for children, asthma sufferers, and the elderly" (see article for more information) Noise from cargo planes operating out of Mather has been a problem since Mather opened as a public airport in May of 1995., and now Sacramento County wants to make it worse. Sacramento County Airport System officials tell us noise criteria are “being met.” While that’s debatable based on how you interpret the numbers, the fact is those criteria are meaningless to a community of people being subjected to nighttime plane noise that’s equal to the sound of a vacuum cleaner running next to their beds. Despite the concerns of residents, the county is determined to proceed with its hub scheme and is attempting to justify it by suggesting that a hub at Mather will foster prosperity for county residents. Experiences in metropolitan areas similar to Sacramento, however, indicate the opposite is more likely. Air cargo hubs seem to lead to economic dead ends. (See the Economics page for details.) The Sacramento County Airport System’s current Master Plan draft is all about expanding airport operations with little thought for the prosperity and well being of residents. If the plan goes forward unchanged, this Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and its successors will be out of the loop and Mather, together with all of its resulting noise and pollution problems, will be out of local control. Mather will be controlled from distant air carrier offices and from deep within a Federal bureaucracy indifferent to local concerns. Property Devaluation. One of the most important studies was conducted by FAA in 1994. The results indicated a consistent negative impact on residential property market values, showing losses to moderately priced homes as high as 19%. This study correlates fairly well with a variety of other published studies which also show that the higher the relative price of the property, the higher the diminution in value. (See the Report) The single biggest investment one makes in their lifetime is the purchase of a home! Our property values have declined because of our current economy, eventually they will rebound. However, El Dorado County & Folsom will be permanently impacted by the expansion of Mather Airport into an International Cargo Hub. Our property values will never rebound if this allowed to happen! Costs are out of control. Sacramento County as of 2008, has lost 4.8 Million in the last four years subsidizing Mather cargo operations as they watch the profits leave in the belly of the cargo jets. Still, they continue to ignore all of these issues and their constituents while subsidizing a money losing venture like the Mather cargo operation. (See the Profit & Loss Statement). At such low approach altitudes, should an aircraft experience a mechanical failure, there is no way out for them at this point. Click on the link below so that you may understand, that it is more than just the loss of property values, unacceptable noise and pollution that thousands families in El Dorado and Sacramento counties are forced to live with. It is a valid safety issue for us as well. Who can forget the Emery Air Crash? Sacramento County has little regard for the safety and welfare for those of us who have to endure the consequences of their poor decisions. and now this? More to come later. -=- |
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