VIEWPOINT: East Hampton Airport Seems Very Out Of Date

By Barry Raebeck

At this point in my life, I am rarely surprised by human behavior. We have an extraordinary capacity to rationalize what we do, focusing on the benefits (generally, for ourselves), while discounting the detrimental impacts. This is marvelously apparent when it comes to degradation of our own habitat, our own community, our own planet.

Sea levels are rising, severe flooding is increasingly common, major storms are worsening in size and frequency, glaciers are melting everywhere, the Arctic Sea ice is shrinking visibly by the day, entire bird species are going extinct, wildfires of the largest magnitude ever recorded are occurring more often, and even outside of “fire season” immigrants from Central America have no option but to leave devastated regions hammered by one hurricane after another. Warming seas have destroyed ancient coral reefs in a few years, ad infinitum.

These events are not fictitious — this is not some dystopian epic movie. This is real, America. This is real, Sag Harbor.

And we are doing it to ourselves, quite deliberately. Many of our children and grandchildren cannot believe the irresponsibility, ignorance and greed of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

While we have known about the climate crisis for decades (if we cared to), we in the United States, who have been responsible for a huge amount of carbon emissions — and still produce far more per capita than any other nation — have been notoriously reluctant to actually change our behaviors.

Individuals may make modest sacrifices, such as eating less beef or riding a bicycle occasionally instead of driving. The nation as a whole, however, has resisted to great degree.

And the wealthiest individuals among us, those who already have the most of everything, are continually doing the most damage. The New York Times reported this year that the wealthiest 1 percent of people generate three times the carbon emissions of the poorest 50 percent. (Please see my opening paragraph.)

Now, with a forward-looking and environmentally inclined new president, decided steps are underway to attempt to make up the lost ground. Subsidizing green energy, raising automobile fuel standards, rejoining the Paris Accord, at least talking about the horrid overuse of plastic and the excessive consumption of meat — these are gentle movements in the right direction.

So, where does East Hampton Airport fit in?

With aircraft using it generating 51 million pounds of carbon emissions, it is by far the single-largest pollution machine on the East End. That air pollution is equivalent to 1,697,464 15-pound propane tanks, or 30,000 households burning 57 tanks each per year. That is a lot of air pollution.

Believe it or not, piston-engine planes still use leaded gas (avgas), which harms humans and our environment with both carbon and lead. The Country School and summer program for children ages 2 to 5 is within yards of the airport. As we all know, lead is especially harmful for children.

In addition to degradation of the air, the airport operations damage us in other ways: visual pollution, groundwater pollution, psychological assault, and, of course, the horrible noise.

The last danger is that of an accident. There have been seven documented crashes in or near the airport since 2004, and God knows how many near-misses.

If one simply looks at the flight path vectors, it is obvious that “flight path” is just a vague concept for airport users. Is there another airport of such size (20,000 operations per year, and rising exponentially from 2015 to 2019) that has aircraft taking off and landing in the same direction? I have seen it countless times myself.

I have seen a jet, a seaplane and a helicopter flying low over our home in three different directions — crisscrossing. Reckless? Stupid? Insanely dangerous? When there is another crash in the woods during a dry period the potential for a horribly destructive wildfire is palpable.

Airport users are mighty small in relative numbers, but they are among the most entitled and self-interested members of our population. Their response to years of complaints by those “grounded aggrieved” has been a single upraised digit.

Elected officials from all over the East End as well as the region, including those in East Hampton, Southampton, North Sea, Shelter Island, Southold, and Riverhead, as well as State Assemblyman Fred Thiele, and, most recently, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who represents Manhattanites assaulted by helicopter tours and Hamptons round-trips, have all gone on record opposing business as usual at East Hampton Airport.

Airporters reply, “The people and the planet be damned.” Theirs is the pollution of convenience. And a decent and clean high-speed rail line such as modern nations have had for years would be even more convenient, yes? Perhaps one of them can pay for it. That would be even more charitable than flying puppies in for ARF.

Now, with East Hampton’s call for a climate emergency and dedication to green energy to alleviate unnecessary carbon emissions, the airport’s old-style pollution production seems mighty out of date.

East Hampton is once more determined to be in the forefront of true environmental leadership. At one time, the idea of closing the airport may have seemed extreme.

Now it is common sense.

Barry Raebeck, Ph.D., a resident of East Hampton, is an environmental activist who co-founded the Quiet Skies Coalition in 2011, and Say No to KHTO in 2016.