The Loma Prietan
May/June 2003
No Sunshine at the Airport?
by Richard Zimmerman
In an apparent victory for people concerned about the health of San Francisco Bay, Superior Court Judge David A. Garcia ruled that San Francisco International must release documents that describe the potential impacts of the proposed runway project.
Unfortunately, SFIA's fog producing machine went into full production after the ruling.
Environmental groups requested full access to proposed runway documentation under San Francisco's Sunshine Act. The Sunshine Act, adopted by city voters in 1999, makes the public release of such documents mandatory. SFIA argued that the documents could not be released due to an agreement with the Federal Aviation Authority. The FAA restricts access to information it considers preliminary as a matter of course in projects.
However, the City and County of San Francisco paid for the research. The environmental groups San Francisco Baykeeper, the San Francisco League of Conservation Voters, and Arc Ecology asked, in April, 2002, that the documents be released under the Sunshine Act. The Sunshine Task Force ruled that the documents must be released. SFIA refused to release the documents and the Sunshine Task Force referred the matter to the District Attorney. The environmental groups filed suit in Superior Court in August, 2002.
While SFIA attempted to hide behind the FAA shield, the judge ruled that the Sunshine Act was not preempted by federal law.
The groups hoped that SFIA would honor the judge's ruling. It was not to be, however. On April 7, SFIA assembled a minimal number of documents for inspection by the environmental groups. SFIA's release included about 20 documents--a stack less than a foot high plus two CDs.
One of the key items expected was the information released to the NOAA peer review panel. SFIA did include an early version of that report, in the form of a CD dated April, 2002. SFIA refused to include revisions of the report saying the court order did not cover those documents.
SFIA also did not release information on other alternatives under consideration, which were previously given to NOAA. SFIA representatives took the position that the more recent reports had been given to the FAA by consultants, not SFIA, and so were not covered by the Sunshine Act. SFIA made no correspondence or other review material available.
While no complete document list is available, the desired documents include reports on diverse subjects such as Airport Market Area Real Estate Assessments, Fisheries Work Plans, Hydrology/Water Quality Baseline report, and Hydrological Model Selection.
SFIA's economic problems intensify
The war on Iraq and the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome made SFIA's financial outlook even bleaker. SFIA layed off 85 employees as of April. In addition, Stuart Sunshine, Mayor Willie Brown's handpicked administrator for the runway project, is leaving his post for private business. FAA and airport officials now say it could be 10 years before demand returns to SFIA.