Pueblo’s objections could ground airport expansion
By Patricia Chambers, The Taos News
Nov. 15 - 3:48 p.m.
The public meeting Nov. 14 to take public comments on the proposed expansion of the Taos Regional Airport seems to face the same obstacles that delayed the expansion 20 years ago.
About 60 residents attended the meeting which is part of the public comment period on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that extends until Nov. 27.
The most significant objection came from Taos Pueblo.
Gil Suazo, a representative of the Taos Pueblo government and a member of the study group on the airport, read an opening statement that listed the reasons for the pueblo’s opposition to the project.
“The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) refused to complete certain studies,” Suazo said — studies that the pueblo government believes were vital to assuring protection of the “living culture” of the pueblo.
Although the FAA had paid for some studies since expansion of the airport adjacent to Taos Pueblo was first proposed, the agency would not finance studies to verify noise levels of overflights by planes landing or taking off from the airport located near the Río Grande Gorge Bridge, Suazo said.
Taos Pueblo was named one of 830 United Nations World Heritage Sites and only one of 20 in the United States. It is also the only World Heritage site with a population living at the site, according to Dr. Sid Martin, director of Indian Affairs for the Inter-Mountain Region of the National Park Service (NPS).
NPS, along with Taos Pueblo, is a cooperating agency on the Taos Regional Airport expansion proposal. Cooperating agencies have until Dec. 12 to add their comment to the FAA record.
The FAA apparently anticipated an emotional meeting. It hired a “professional facilitator” from Santa Fé to act as moderator of the meeting.
The response from an FAA staff member to a resident’s question about public hearings on the DEIS might explain the tension that resulted in brief applause or raised voices. The reply was, “We have held several meetings. The last one was held in 1999.”
About a half-dozen residents involved in the coalition that forced the FAA to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement in a 1991 lawsuit spoke at the meeting.
Jean Luis Bourgeois, a vocal opponent of the project from its inception, strongly objected to the format that allowed three minutes of oral comment. Although any resident could add written comment of any length to the record, Bourgeois refused to keep to the three-minute time limit and said he wanted to the opportunity to make his opposition known to the public.
Bourgeois said the DEIS did not reflect objections made during the public hearings in the 1990s.
Cliff Bain, who also was a member of the coalition, objected to the brief comment period and stressed that the public had very little time to review the three volume DEIS.
Simeon Herskovits, director of the Southwest Office of the Western Environmental Law Center in Taos, asked the FAA to extend the comment period. Federal regulations allow up to a 90-day comment period, he said.
Andrés Vargas, newly elected Taos County probate judge, was the town attorney when the expansion was initially proposed. The town council at that time did not want to hear comments from the public, Vargas said.
He agreed there are safety issues for the pilots using Taos Regional Airport, but suggested it might be better to move the airport to another location.
The proposed expansion, first proposed in 1986, calls for construction of a “crosswinds runway” that would allow pilots to take off or land in the east-west direction when strong winds affect the main north-south runway.
The injunction against the expansion issued by the U.S. District Court of New Mexico in 1991 also prohibited the airport from building new hangars, and many pilots must strap their planes down when they sit in the open.
The current runway is 5,800 feet by 75 feet. Planes, such as the Lear Jet and Cessna Citation, that currently use the airport, need at least 5,000 feet of runway to take off or land, said Airport Manager Mark Fratrick.
The airport also sits at an altitude of 7,091 feet, which makes elevation density a serious factor for planes taking off from the airport, he said. For those reasons, planes often do not take on a full load of fuel and that limits revenue at the airport.
The proposed expansion also includes construction of a new terminal and a new access road about a half-mile west of the current access road, Fratrick said.
Several local pilots pointed to the need for an extended runway and construction of a crosswinds runway for the safety of pilots currently using the airport.
Mark Cohen, a local pilot, listed figures about the current use of the airport. Taos Regional Airport has about 19 landings and 19 takeoffs each day, he said. The high altitude in Taos also requires a runway 25 percent longer than runways at a lower altitude, Cohen said.
“One of these days, there is going to be an accident that could have been prevented with a longer runway,” Cohen warned.
Eric Montoya, administrative fire chief for the town of Taos, said the airport is also important to public safety. He said high crosswinds grounded a fire-fighting plane during a fire near the Río Grande Gorge several years ago. “The fire chased us to our first and then second safety ground because we couldn’t get air support.”
Others referred to the safety of air ambulances and rescue mission flights, as well as overnight freight delivery that are jeopardized by high winds.
If the FAA is listening, however, the issue may come back to the objections of Taos Pueblo, which could be resolved with technical data drawn from noise ratings of planes that fly over the runway path.
Village of Taos Ski Valley Administrator Rob Straebel and Village Mayor Neil King expressed their support of the expansion, but said they want the pueblo’s issues addressed by the FAA.
To send comments to the FAA on the proposed expansion, contact:
Joyce M. Porter
FAA — Southwest Regional Office
2601 Meacham Blvd.
Fort Worth, Texas 76137-4298
Include “Taos Regional Airport EIS” in subject line