The Airport Expansion: A Defining Issue in Eastern Delaware County

     Delaware County Council's (DCC) response is not encouraging as expressed at the
FAA meeting hosted by Rep. Curt Weldon in Ridley Township on October 18, 2006.  Chairman Andrew Reilly gave a spirited oral presentation, but  –  holding his hands to his head like two pistols and pressing his index fingers to both temples -- in response to the question whether he had committed his statements to writing he stated, “It’s all up here,” meaning he does not have it in writing; for the 3 - 5 years that this has been on top of the table this is a startling admission that airport expansion is not of utmost importance to quality of life in Delaware County as a whole. 

     It is a perception of Delaware County Council that Delaware County consists of two unrelated but defined parts; the eastern municipalities that are considered  “urban” and the  western municipalities that are “suburban.” 

 
     From the rapidity that north-south Runway 17-35 was approved for extension, a fact that the FAA representative at the meeting was proud of gloated over, and Delaware County Council’s indifference to this extension, it appears that eastern Delaware County municipalities are being offered as a sacrifice on the altar of expansion of Philadelphia International Airport.

     I chatted  up DCC's John Whelan outside the meeting room; he too is as indecisive (I would say remote) on the subject as Mr. Reilly is. The other Council members, Ms. Linda Cartisano and Ms. Mary Alice Brennan, with whom I spoke on Monday at a meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Maria Cino, weren’t present at the Ridley meeting, but seemed unconcerned on the subject of Runway 17-35 and Airspace Redesign. 

     Reading all of the signs, body language, and words conveys the clear message that eastern Delaware County cannot count on Delaware County Council to include Runway 17-35 in its proposed legal action or suit against FAA nor will DCC  file for injunctive relief (and separately, against the airport for violating both spirit and intent of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

     Further, I think that DCC would carry forward only the hope that a suit would be filed  –  the only thing FAA and the airport would listen to  –  until November 7th, after which any opposition at the County level that might favor eastern Delaware County will vanish.

     It is revealing that Transportation Secretary Maria Cino was driven around Swarthmore and Media area, but apparently not the eastern Delaware County municipalities that would be affected by the flightpath of Runway 17-35.

     Secretary Cino commented on the great beauty of the areas in Delaware County to which she was taken, however, she did not comment upon what the aftermath of environmental and economic upheavals  would be after the expansion of the airport through capacity enhancement,  airspace redesign over Delaware  County or the Extension of Runway 17-35 all of which are interrelated.  

     It is disappointing that Runway 17-35 with its de facto redesigned airspace over eastern Delaware County has become so politicized that FAA and the airport could not only degrade our municipalities with noise, filth and air  pollution, with adverse economic impacts but could continue to use the same administrative procedures to make further inroads again and again into Delaware County, essentially without opposition.                                          

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