Even though the Dane County Regional Airport added a new south terminal, expanding its garage and build a cell phone lot in the past few years, it is just now updating its 23-yer-old master plan with the goal of making it an international airport with larger runways which will result in larger plane and more noise. Airport director Mark Papko said in this local TV new report that, “It’s not just Mark’s plan, it’s not just the county’s plan. It truly is, you know, the two and a half million passengers that fly through this airport. It’s their collective plan as well.”
Let’s hope he amends that sentiment to includes the thousands of neighbors who are impacted by airport noise and PFAS pollution emanating from the airport all the way to Lake Monona and under neighborhoods to Reindahl Park where the water utility installed a $6 million filter installation of PFAS filter last year. PFAS still flow through the Truax and Carpenter-Ridgeway neighborhoods to that park, it’s just that the water well filters out most of the toxin. Resident exposures in the form of vapor intrusion is almost a certainty but you know what? No one has tested for this obvious environmental injustice issue.
“County Executive Agard says they will be actively looking for community input on the airport’s plan in the years to come. [I was quoted as saying] in order for that community input to be comprehensive — meetings should be held at centers where communities are most affected — such as the East Madison Community Center, Madison College and Warner Park Community Recreation Center.
“We’ve talked about the the [Oak Park Terrace] mobile home park, the [Truax Apartments] low income apartments. They’re just going to have more and more exposure, and it’s not just ‘it sounds bad’. It actually psychologically and physiologically affects people….”
Let’s hope the county actually listens to neighbors, not just the chamber of commerce, business community, Air National Guard based at Truax Field and Epic Systems, which has driven the dramatic increase in passengers at the airport. Speaking of whcih, there is plenty of undeveloped land next to its “intergalactic headquarters” in Verona. Maybe that’s where a new airport should be built, which would allow the old one to be fully remediated, Starkweather Creek restored for watershed flood mitigation and brownfield infill housing development.
You can learn more about PFAS pollution from the airport on the MEJO website. Just search for “airport” and “PFAS.” You can learn more than ever wanted.
You can learn more about airport noise on the Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin website.
