Airports and the Environment

s a result of the industrialization of society and the growth of heavy industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pollution of air and water became a significant by-product of progress. Until the 1950s, prevailing wisdom held that such pollution was the inevitable price of such progress.

Visible air pollution was seen from station­ary sources like manufacturing plants and facto­ries and in “smog” accumulations in places like the Los Angeles Air Basin due to automobile emissions. Industrial and municipality discharges into waterways caused widespread prohibitions against swimming and fishing due to health risks. Catastrophes like the Cuyahoga River fire (the river caught fire) and the Love Canal scan­dal (toxic waste seepage caused a declaration of a federal emergency) were high-profile examples of pollution. When jet transport aircraft were introduced into the air carrier fleet in 1958, the dense, black exhaust emissions created on take­off at ground level and during climbout were vivid evidence of yet another encroachment on air quality levels.

Prior acceptance of pollution as an inevita­ble by-product of progress has now been roundly rejected. Current environmental policy is con­cerned with almost all aspects of the quality
of life on earth. In this chapter we will briefly review the evolution of current policy gener­ally, and we will look at how current policy has attempted to address the specific environmental impacts of aviation.

The Air Pollution Act and the Clean Air Act

The first attempt by Congress to address the problem of air pollution generally came in the Air Pollution Act of 1955.1 Subsequent efforts to strengthen controls on pollution occurred in amendments beginning in 1963 in the Clean Air Act, which was amended almost yearly until 1970. That year proved to be a watershed year for environmentalists, with the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 (an amendment to the 1963 Act),2 which created the Environmental Protection Agency as an independent agency reporting directly to the president. Its broad authority is over control of pollution, noise, and radiation.

Although the Clean Air Act mandates a national policy, the statute gives state and local governments primary responsibility for regula­tion of pollution from power plants, factories, and
other stationary sources. The EPA retains primary responsibility for “mobile source” pollution.

The EPA is required to consult with the FAA on any standards sought by the EPA to be made applicable to aircraft engine emissions. The EPA is prohibited by the terms of the Clean Air Act from changing aircraft emission standards if such a change would significantly increase noise or adversely affect safety. The FAA is charged with enforcing EPA standards through FAA regulations.

The EPA coordinates its aircraft engine emission regulation authority with the Interna­tional Civil Aviation Organization, created by the Chicago Convention in 1944, due to its role to develop international civil aviation in a “safe and orderly manner.” ICAO’s responsibilities include developing aircraft technical and operat­ing standards and recommending practices. The United States is currently one of 191 participat­ing member States of ICAO. One of the founding principles of ICAO was to create a high degree of uniformity between nations in the interest of global harmonization. Moreover, any participat­ing member may ban the use of aircraft within its airspace that does not meet ICAO standards. EPA standards do not apply to military aircraft.

ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environ­mental Protection (CAEP) is responsible for the technical work in the environmental field. CAEP is composed of various work groups from many countries who do the technical research and pro­pose solutions and standards. The FAA repre­sents the United States in this committee. This procedure and practice for creating binding U. S. regulatory law has been judicially upheld in The National Association of Clean Air Agencies v. EPA, 489 F. 3d 1221 (D. C. Cir. 2007).

The approach taken by the EPA and by ICAO is to regulate nitrogen oxides produced in combustion (and some other pollutants) primarily by imposing standards for new engine designs. The imposition of emissions standards for new engine designs is a complex and cautious under­taking in view of the many other considerations inherent in engine manufacture, such as fuel efficiency, safety, and cost. The ICAO standards are found in Annex 16, Environmental Protec­tion, Volume II, “Aircraft Engine Emissions.”