SOOT FROM BOB HOPE AIRPORT A WORRY RESEARCH LACKING ON POLLUTION FROM FACILITY.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer

BURBANK - While noise is often a top concern for residents living near the Bob Hope Airport, Burbank residents opposed to airport expansion also have argued that the airport affects the quality of the air they breathe.

Some studies have found that airports can have harmful health effects on nearby communities. Air pollution, however, has been little studied at Bob Hope Airport compared with research done at several other airports.

But Carolyn Berlin, a vocal advocate for controlling airport growth, said pollution from the freeways and the airport is visible to the eye.

``I don't want to see Burbank get to the point that we have ... so much in terms of additional flights that our congestion gets to such a degree that we are harming ourselves more than we realize,'' she said.

Residents living near the airport have complained for years about soot on their properties that they believe comes from passing planes. But determining where such particulate matter came from can be a challenge.

``I've had three trees die in the last three years,'' said Mark Stebbeds, 56, who lives a couple of miles south of the airport and reports finding soot on plants and on his patio furniture.

``I'm not a scientist so I can't directly attribute it to the airplanes, but there certainly wasn't any other reason for them to die. They were healthy plants and had been here for years,'' he said.

City Councilman Todd Campbell, who is also policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air, said when soot is found on a property it could be coming from a roadway or another source beside an airport. But air pollution around the Bob Hope Airport deserves further study, he said.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has heard from residents around the Santa Monica and Van Nuys airports, and in the spring it will conduct air quality tests around those airports. The agency has no immediate plans to test at the Bob Hope Airport.

``What we really need to answer is how much of the pollution is coming from the airport,'' Campbell said. ``And I'm hoping when the studies are concluded at Santa Monica and Van Nuys, if there is a collaborative effort with Bob Hope (Airport) and a collaborative effort with the city of Burbank, that the AQMD will come to Burbank and conduct similar tests,'' Campbell said.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, which has schools near Santa Monica Municipal Airport, conducted a study in 1999 that found increased cancer risk for some residents near the airport. But, in response to residents' concerns about soot, the report studied particulate pollutants and did not find levels in excess of national standards.

``The studies thus far indicate that there is some influence from airport operations on the health of the community,'' said LAUSD assessment coordinator Bill Piazza, who wrote the report.

``And really it's a matter of degrees and where you are in relation to the airport and how the airport operates,'' he said.

The AQMD conducted a one-month study around Los Angeles International Airport in 1999 and found the carcinogen benzene in higher than usual concentrations downwind from the airport, but researchers could not determine if that was because of the airport or vehicle traffic. The California Air Resources Board will vote next month on whether to conduct a $120,000 study at LAX that would take two years.

Meanwhile, 70 percent of the ground service equipment airlines use at the Bob Hope Airport will be converted from diesel to electric power by the end of next year, and the airport is spending $1.3 million to provide charging stations for the initiative. It will also spend $1.3 million to replace old diesel buses with six cleaner-burning new models.

``The bottom line is we have better air (quality) today than we did and ... the overall reduction in air pollution, particulate matter and (nitrous oxides) in this area has improved from what it was in the '70s,'' said Victor Gill, a spokesman for the airport authority.

Ralph Gee, 81, who is retired and lives about a mile south of the Bob Hope Airport, worries about air pollution and the soot he finds on fruit trees in his back yard. Gee said the airplanes flying by his home are much cleaner than they were 30 years ago, but he still worries about expansion.

``This is nothing like LAX, but we don't want it to become like that,'' he said.

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

A Southwest Airlines flight takes off from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, where airport officials are working to reduce emissions. Residents fear that expansion will bring more pollution.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer