Airport seeks to fill ponds to cut threat of bird strikes.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

With bird-attracting ponds close to the main runway at the Eugene Airport, officials for years have worried about waterfowl striking aircraft and causing damage, even a crash. Now, airport officials want to reduce that threat by filling the ponds.

The airport is seeking permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State Department of Lands to eliminate two ponds that are within 700 feet of the airport's commercial runway.

"The purpose is to reduce the potential risk of bird strikes," airport spokeswoman Cathryn Stevens said.

Bird strikes, the aviation term for a bird hitting a windshield of a plane, or getting sucked into an engine fan, often occur at low altitudes, during takeoff or landing.

Airport officials were concerned about bird strikes even before the dramatic water landing in January of US Airways Flight 1549 on New York's Hudson River, Stephens said. Both engines of the Airbus A320 were disabled after they sucked in birds after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport.

Pilot Chesley Sullenberger and co-pilot Jeff Skiles landed the plane in the river with no loss of life to passengers and crew.

Ducks, Canada geese, American kestrels, red tail hawks, barn owls, seagulls, sparrows, horned larks, swallows and starlings are commonly found at the Eugene Airport, Stephens said.

During the past two decades, the airport has averaged about five bird strikes annually, according to the city's application with the Army Corps of Engineers.

So far this year, six bird strikes haven been recorded at the airport, none of them causing serious damage to a plane, Stephens said.

The last one to do major damage occurred Sept. 26, 2007, when a Skywest flight, on its approach to the airport, struck a duck. The bird flew into an engine, causing unspecified damage.

Most bird collisions don't damage or bring down planes. Still, Eugene aviators worry about the possibility, said Phil Groshong, a former United Airlines pilot and the airport's liaison with private pilots.

"When you hit something when you are going anywhere from 100 to 300 miles an hour," it can cause major damage, he said.

Officials use different methods to keep birds away from the ponds and other places at the airport, Groshong said.

They include firing shotguns and propane-powered cannons, and strategic placement of dummy coyotes, he said.

The two ponds, covering 3.7 acres, are former gravel pits dug in the 1940s, Stephens said.

When wetlands are filled, state and federal laws require an equal amount and quality of wetlands to be restored or created elsewhere. Airport officials estimate the pond filling project could cost $800,000, including an estimated $259,000 that would be given to the West Eugene Wetlands mitigation bank. That money would be used to restore other wetlands in west Eugene.

It could take months for the Army Corps of Engineers to decide whether to approve the project, said Corps spokesman Scott Clemans.