"Three species of mangroves are found in Florida: the red mangrove, black mangrove, and white mangrove. Typically, red mangroves grow along the water's edge, black mangroves grow on slightly higher elevations than the red mangrove, and white mangroves grow upland from the red and black. All are threatened species. Mangroves grow in saltwater and in areas frequently flooded by saltwater.'
"Early settlers to South Florida regarded mangrove forests as being useless, mosquito-infested, uninhabitable lands. Today, ecologists realize their important role in coastal ecosystems. Mangrove leaves, trunks and branches fall into the water and are transformed into detritus, which is the basis of an elaborate food chain. Mangroves provide protected habitat, breeding grounds and nursery areas to many terrestrial and marine animals. Mangroves also provide shoreline protection from wind, waves and floods.'
"From 1920 to 1926, the original freshwater ecosystem of this area was dredged, filled and divided for development. As part of a wetlands mitigation program the land was purchased, and between 1985 and 1993, a multi-agency effort re-created 203 acres of mangroves, mudflats and tidal pools."
The runway expansion approved by the Broward County Commission will eradicate approximately 15 acres of wetlands largely populated by mangroves and other threatened species such as the Smooth-billed Ani. According to the Florida Birding Atlas' Smooth-billed Ani distribution map, there are indeed at least 2 confirmed nesting areas in the path of the expansion, and at least 2 more unconfirmed areas at the east end of the flight path, near or in
J ohn U Lloyd State Park.
If no new runway is built, the consultants, hired by the Federal Aviation Administration, "think" delays will top an average of 26 minutes by 2020, more than four times what is considered acceptable. Are we to invest nearly a billion dollars on conjecture?
The longer runway would require the airport to soundproof or buy more homes, affecting the lives of 2,500 residents compared with 1,500 with the 6,001-foot runway.
None of the options discussed to this point are adequate to handle the New Larger Aircraft that the FAA defines as Group VI Aircraft, and which will soon dominate air traffic. These aircraft, as you are aware, require a 200 foot wide by 11,000 foot long runway with a minimum of 600 feet between a runway and a taxi-way, and a minimum of 324 feet between taxi-ways. In five or ten years do we repeat this mistake and spend another billion dollars or more to extend the runway again, only this time build cofferdams and push fill into the ocean to make land for the runway?
As it now stands, the Broward County Commission has approved a plan that will require 6,000,000 cubic yards of fill, but they haven't divulged the source of this fill. At my last observation I haven't noticed any hills that we can take down to contribute this vast amount of fill, even if we utilize the existing land fill piles in Broward, Palm Beach and Dade Counties. Short of digging, the only other option is dredging, which presents another set of problems
I don't believe that they realize that 6,000,000 cubic yards of fill amounts to an area of 3,722 acre feet, which at 25 feet in depth would create a lake with a surface area of .76 square miles. Will this lake be for recreational purposes or will it replace the aquifer that we have nearly ruined by lowering the level of Lake Okeechobee, and allowing fertilizers and phosphates from the farms and sugar plantations to pollute our existing aquifer? Add this to the 15 acres of wetlands that will be lost. Maybe this new lake will take out some more of our endangered wildlife habitat.
In a day when fuel economy is of paramount concern, the Commissioners must realize that 6,000,000 cubic yards of fill means 300,000 truckloads at 20 yards per truck, and if we assume a 20 mile round trip, (which to me is inconceivable in view of the fact that there is no land area large enough to provide this fill within a ten mile radius of the airport,) at 8 miles per gallon, (an optimistic figure), means that a minimum of 750,000 gallons of fuel will be consumed, which at today's rates, $3.00 per gallon, means $2,225,000.00 in fuel costs alone, and who knows what the fuel cost will be in the future?  This doesn't even consider the fuel to operate the ancillary construction equipment that will be involved in the project.
According to an esteemed source, a modern automobile with a catalytic converter emits about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon of fuel used. Diesel burning dump trucks not only are rarely equipped with working catalytic converters, but they also emit sulphur dioxide, and nitrous oxide as well as other noxious elements and VOCs, adding poisons to the ground ozone.
750,000 gallons of fuel at 20 pounds of emissions is 15,000,000 pounds or 7,500 tons minimum, of toxic greenhouse gas emissions. Why not just park an idling Greyhound bus in our living rooms?
The demand for concrete is presently at an all time high, driving the price per yard up at a steadily increasing rate. At today's costs, the nearly 60,000 cubic yards of concrete required for the top 14 inches of the runway alone will be in excess of $2, 850,000.00, and what will the final cost escalate to with an estimated annual rise in material cost of between 2% and 8%? This does not consider the lighting, drainage piping, and reinforcing steel, or miscellaneous iron. Nor does it consider the megalithic structure needed to support the bridge deck over US1 and the FEC railroad tracks.
In order to handle the increased passenger volume carried by the NLAs, the concourses will have to be widened, separated by more space than FLL can afford, double or triple decked, and the fuel pumping system will have to be completely upgraded. Departure delays will pale in insignificance to the delays in baggage check-in and security screening.
There is presently no room at FLL to build a hangar capable of servicing an Airbus A380 when you consider that the clear span inside the building must be a minimum of 260' deep by 280' wide and 90' in height.By the time the roof structure is considered in the height of the building, the overall height will exceed the airport height restrictions (This amounts to a twelve story building.), and extreme precision will be required in placing the aircraft in the hangar. Hangar floors will have to be thickened to support the jacking weight of the NLA's, and in reality, the electronics involved in servicing will require more space in the hangar, , or must be housed in a separate building.
By the time the runway construction is finished, the runway will be outmoded, and we will find ourselves in a similar situation again, needing to expand an airport that will never be able to accommodate the volume of passenger traffic this fantasy envisions.
How, in good conscience, can the Broward County Commission approve an expansion program that creates more problems than it solves; when this affects the habitat of the human species as well as the indigenous flora and fauna mentioned above? Although humans are far from endangered, their south Florida habitat is diminishing rapidly.
We are encroaching on the Everglades, indiscriminately destroying more wetlands daily, and now we want to destroy even more by replacing the homes of homo-sapiens "melaleucus", and by the somewhat magical procurement of 6,000,000 cubic yards of fill.
If the runway is built, the damage to the wetlands will be permanent, and costly in terms of endangered wildlife. The mangroves that will be destroyed are already considered threatened and the destruction of the breeding habitat of endangered marine life and threatened avian species such as the Smooth-billed Ani, whose existing nesting area in the path of the runway expansion, along with its breeding area in John U Lloyd Park, will be eternal and irreparable. Do we learn nothing from our past mistakes?
This rape of our diminishing wetlands is no less reprehensible than the destruction of the Amazon Rain Forest that has everyone here so up in arms. Is it not hypocritical to complain about someone else doing essentially the same things that we plan to do, no matter the scale?
The American Forestry Association is currently in a campaign to plant 3,000,000 trees around the globe in an effort to combat global warming. "Planting trees in the right places for the right reasons is the best dollar-for-dollar investment you can make to improve our environment. We plant to repair hurricane or flood damage - have cleaner air -- reclaim abandoned strip mines or farms - prevent erosion into salmon streams - fight back invasive species of trees - and make cooler, cleaner cities. Trees reduce greenhouse gases by absorbing carbon dioxide, save energy, help filter our water, and so much more"! We, on the other hand, are planning a destruction that will partially offset this effort, and this is counter-productive to say the least.
"We come to a decision that is long overdue and one which no one takes lightly," Mayor Josephus Eggelletion said at the meeting of June 5. As I saw it at the meeting, the County Commission took it very lightly, because they, in large part, ignored the pleas and arguments of the people who expressed negative views of the expansion, while embracing the views of the "Yellow Shirt Brigade".
In actuality, the people who voiced positive opinions were contractors, hoteliers, and other business people who stand to profit from the expansion program itself more than from the supposed influx of new citizens it is meant to draw to Broward County, (no one has yet determined where to house them, or the people in the 40+ mobile home parks, that will have to be placed in alternative affordable housing). In my view, this can only mean that they anticipate some financial gain at the expense of the rest of the citizens of Broward County.
It now rests on the shoulders of the FAA and the EPA to advise the Broward County Commission of their fallacies and poor judgment in approving this expansion "lack of plan". Please say "Stop!" to this nonsense.
The above letter was forwarded from the Washington DC office to Virginia Lane, who is in charge of the Orlando office, and the following is the non-committal response from her.
From:
Virginia.Lane@faa.gov
To:
"Grant Campbell"
Cc:
cbabb@landrum-brown.com
Subject:
Re: FLL Expansion
Date:
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 8:53:16 AM
Dear Mr. Campbell: Thank you for your comments. Your comments will be
considered in the Final EIS that FAA is currently preparing.
Virginia Lane, A.I.C.P.
Federal Aviation Administration
Orlando Airports District Office
5950 Hazeltine National Drive
Orlando, FL 32822
Tel: 407/812/6331 Ext. 129
Fax: 407/812/6978
As you will see in future posts, this expansion is plagued with problems that the Broward County Commission does not possess the intelligence or the expertise to solve, even if you factor in the collective experience of the FAA.
Expansion is not the answer to FLLs problems. A prior docoment from the FAA stated that runway expansion would increase airport capacity 0%. If the tenant airlines at the airport were to iccrease their efficiency, there would be no non weather related delays at FLL.
The aircraft control system is outmoded and needs replacing. This is not my area of expertise, but for more information on this, please visit this site:
http://www.faahope.com/?section=News
Grant Campbell
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