A story in the San Jose Mercury News reports that soil samples taken at Reid-Hillview Airport (KRHV) in San Jose, California, did not contain lead levels that exceed local, state, or federal standards.
The soil study, commissioned by Santa Clara County, follows an airborne lead study concluded in August 2021 that found that children who live around the airport had elevated levels of lead in their blood. That was one of the factors in the county banning the sale of 100LL at Reid-Hillview, as well as the county’s other general aviation airport, San Martin Airport (E16).
According to the local newspaper report, the new study examined soil from 32 locations across the airport.
“Results of this study determined that total lead was not detected above San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Board Environmental Screening Levels, (Environmental Protection Agency) Regional Screening Levels, or California Total Threshold Level Concentration trigger values in any of the soil samples collected during investigations at either airport,” the study stated.
“The new soil study is bound to intensify debates surrounding the planned closure of Reid-Hillview Airport,” writes reporter Gabriel Greschler.
Efforts to close the airport have been going on for decades. County supervisors voted in 2018 to stop accepting federal grant dollars for the airport, which could lead to Reid-Hillview’s closure in 2031.
You can read the San Jose Mercury News article here.
the test for the efficacy of the report of high soil levels would be if the board of supervisors are willing to declare the soil surrounding the airport an EPA Super fund site. If the report is true, then all of the contaminated soil would have to be removed and replaced with new soil — are the developers willing to absorb that cost if the EPA doesn’t fund it?
Why is it we can’t accept that everybody is not as smart as everybody
Basic science
a correlation as this study shows does not prove a cause like lead in children
Other causes need to be investigated like old lead paint
Why doesn’t this problem show up at other airports
Needs to I commission an independent study to prove the lead was from avgas
This is all about politics and closing the airport
Regardless I agree lead should be phased out but not avation
What a CARNARD! This rubbish study is like the CDC and Fauci’s NIH pushing the non-existent COVID-19 “virus” – that’s NEVER been isolated in a laboratory, together with a phony PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test that the inventor Karry Mullis declared is not to be used to determine if a person is sick or infected with something. We’re dealing with bureaucratic blenders of bogus facts that never existed in the first place. Just like 100LL isn’t killing anyone, neither is the non-existent “virus” – but what IS disabling, maiming and killing people is the nano-graphene laden clot kill shots and their boosters. Doubt that statement? Then you need to watch Dr. David Martin: https://awakecanada.org/dr-david-martin-on-fire/
Factory Fire Destroys only TEL Factory in Western World, GA Grounded
Picture that currently mythical headline.
We literally need to get the Lead out. We AvGas burners are wholly dependent on a toxic ingredient that no one wants to produce. Talk about supply chain vulnerability.
The original report for elevated levels of lead in blood samples taken from children. The levels detected were below safety threshold but we higher than for children samples elsewhere. That seems to align well with the new study. Lead was detected in the soul samples, but those lead concentrations are within acceptable bounds for all relevant regulators. Both studies found lead, both studies identified lead levels within acceptable bounds. The only thing missing is to determine whether lead levels in the soul around Reid Hillview are higher than levels at locations further from the airport. All of this is just data. What we choose to do with the data is where the controversy comes in. Personally, if like to burn unleaded fuel in my plane if it were available. Unleaded fuel would eliminate the primary cause of spark plug fouling and would make cleaning the belly of my plane a lot easier. Just make unleaded after broadly available.
So, help me understand, the lead only went into the children and not in the soil?
It’s selective/smart lead?
Can you site the reference to the MIT study? I couldn’t find it…
The MIT study titled “Costs of IQ Loss from Leaded Aviation Gasoline Emissions” can be viewed here
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b02910?journalCode=esthag&cookieSet=1
Please be aware that even the EPA admits that no amount of lead is safe, but EPA officials say since it is impossible to completely eliminate industry lead contamination so called acceptable levels are determined based on what is considered possible to attain.
Children are more in danger to exposure to lead than adults because their brains are still developing and lead displaces calcium in their growing bodies. Calcium is commonly known as an important mineral for building strong healthy bones, but its impact on brain health often gets overlooked. Calcium is Involved in every phase of brain cell development
The amount of lead in soil samples is not the issue. The issue is that blood lead levels of children living in communities near the airport have raised blood lead levels when compared to children who do not live near a general aviation airport where leaded avgas is sold. Raised blood lead levels in children have been scientifically shown by studies at MIT and Duke University to be directly related to leaded aviation fuel. MIT researchers found that each year childhood IQ losses directly related to leaded aviation fuel results in about $1 billion dollars in damages in lifetime earnings reductions in the U.S.
I am NOT for closing general aviation airports, however I AM for offering unleaded UL94 fuel to reduce the risk of lead poisoning of our children from leaded avgas as much as possible.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.”
They want the land; plain and simple. They’ll do or say anything they can to make that happen.
California politicians would sell their mother if the price was right!
The head of the Board of Supervisors is a lady named Cindy Chavez, and she merely hates the airport! The “study” which showed elevated lead levels was commissioned to support Ms Chavez’s drive to close the airport, not as a true study of the past which might predict the future. The “study” took soil samples all around East San Jose and found consistent lead levels, albeit low, but lead was present over a very wide are. From where did the lead come? Probably from auto fuel back in the days when it was leaded.
The consultant found a Belgium study which showed a direct correlation with elevating lead levels and declining I.Q. levels in children, so the Hispanic community around the airport seized on this as a rich man’s way of suppressing I.Q. levels of their Hispanic children and thus preventing them from achieving high scholastic scores which then would mean that the rich man’s children would get into colleges and achieve high paying jobs while the Hispanic children would be limited to low paying jobs. Ridiculous? Cindy Chavez didn’t think so.
This report today nullifies much of the prejudiced report that was used by the Supervisors to threaten closure of Reid-Hillview. Perhaps that brings “balance” back to this hostile argument? Let’s hope so.
Unless the lead was remediated from the site it would still be there. Lead doesn’t just disappear or evaporate like volatile or semi-volatile compounds. The only way to effectively understand this issue is to see the comparison of soil lead levels before and after. Unless of course the soil lead levels were always below the environmental screening levels etc. This is quite the spin to make the data fit a narrative.
Then there was the story about Chicken Little and how the sky was supposedly falling!