New Haven Independent

There are a lot of people in Morris Cove and East Haven not smiling quite as much as this woman, Janice B. Deshais, the hearing officer for the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Deshais oversaw this first public hearing Wednesday night on the proposed airport safety improvements. The plan, originally submitted in 2000 and approved for environmental impact by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2002, has already received tentative DEP approval on Aug. 22. Even though, process-wise, we seem to be at the 11th hour, the DEP deemed the work sufficiently significant to take the unusual step to be the initiator of public hearings.

They got an earful.

Nearly 300 concerned people made for a standing-room only audience at Nathan Hale. They heard Richard K. Domas, the lead environmental planner of the firm Hoyle, Tanner, & Associates, hired by Tweed in 2000, explain the plan to add Runway Safety Areas (RSAs in airport-speak), which are 1,000 by 500-foot surfaces at the head and end of the runway to reduce damage in the event of over or undershooting on landing and take-off. To do this, 14 acres of fresh water wetland currently on airport property would be covered over; Morris Creek and Turtle Creek, at the two ends of the runway, would also have to be re-routed, along with Dodge Avenue. An extension of taxiway, also for safety, is part of the plan.

In exchange for this covering over of some 14 acres of wetland on airport property, Domas was at pains to articulate in a slide show how Tweed would create about 55 new acres of salt marsh through reconstruction and computer-monitoring of a 1930s-era tidal gate at Morris Creek, which today is keeping the sea out. Under the plan, the new computerized tidal gate would let the sea in so that the freshwater marsh today would return to its pristine tidal state. “We weighed two public interests,” he said, “public safety and the public interest in viable wetlands, and, frankly I think it’s a win-win for the traveling public and for the environment.”

Not everybody was buying. Ken Bellello, who has a house on Concord Street, a block from Dean Avenue, which regularly floods, was skeptical as he looked at a map. “After a rain, there’s so much water you can’t drive.” Domas countered by saying the computers would be set so that the water would not be allowed to rise above three and half feet. “Dean Street,” he said confidently, “floods at four.”

Bellello was respectful but … “The basements on Dean Street are already full of water, and they’re going to let more in?”

In fact there was another elephant in the room, a really big one “” the feeling expressed by many of the nearly 40 people who testified before the DEP microphone “” that these safety improvements were merely a first and perhaps even camouflaged step in a juggernaut expansion of the airport to receive more and larger planes. Domas denied this characterization, stating that the proposed RSAs, by FAA standards, can accommodate only planes of the size currently flying into Tweed.

Nevertheless, the skeptics kept coming. “We’re here because we’re worried about the size of the planes,” said Phyllis Conte, on the right in the foreground, and her friend Vivien Ventura agreed. “The planes go right over our heads as is and shake everything up. Plus, they are going to reroute Dodge Avenue as part of the plan and it’s really convenient just where it is.”

Deshais repeated several times that DEP could not respond to the expansion fears, that the hearing was limited to peoples’ worries about adverse environmental impacts only. But the elephant nevertheless was making very articulate noises, in the form of statements by State Senator Leonard Fasano and East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo.

“First of all, they are not creating any 60 new acres; they are revitalizing wetland that’s already there. And, for the RSAs, they are destroying 14 acres of the marsh. That happens to be in direct violation of State Environmental Plan, which is in the law very clearly that you are not allowed to destroy wetland. DEP simply cannot do that, unless they change the law, which they are not doing. Instead, they are turning a blind eye to what’s happening here, and that’s not right,” Maturo said, to applause. “We know where this is going, and it’s a mistake. Instead, the money should be put into Bradley, which is the airport of the future, not Tweed.”

Mayor Maturo added to the warning that if East Haven allows this to happen, to be in violation of state law, the municipality would not be able to apply for bonding, which keeps taxes down. “We are sending briefs, prepared by our attorneys, to the DEP next week.”

Helen Miller was representing herself, she said, and many people like her who live on the East shore precisely for its environmental attractions so close to a dense city. “We don’t have $80,000 to hire lobbyists,” she said, “and, I’m sorry, we do fear this is a first step in the significant expansion of Tweed. That will change our environment forever, and badly, interfere with bird migration, and much else. We rely on you, on the good will of our elected officials for fairness. Please.”

Henry Farkas, a local resident, spoke of his love for egrets and hawks which, he felt would be adversely affected by a change in the wetlands. He also rebutted a charge by a pro-improvement speaker, an ex-employee at the airport, who cited the need for RSAs by recalling a fatal accident in Kentucky last year. “That accident was not due to an absence of RSAs,” Farkas said. “The plane just took off from the wrong runway. I am not in principle against airports, and I know they have to survive, but let’s think about this.”

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano already has, according to Deputy Economic Development Director Tony Bialecki, who rose to submit a formal letter of support by the mayor. “Of all the things we hear from people in business, who are thinking about investing in New Haven,” he said, “it’s that the airport and its capacity cannot be diminished due to lack of a commitment to expand.”

Some speakers saw evidence of expansionism in the master plan for Tweed, which indicates that the RSAs are to be paved over. That means they can be transformed from safety areas for overshoots into simply longer runways to accommodate bigger planes. “I suggest it’s disingenuous to say it’s for safety,” said Tom Holahan, a former alderman and mayoral hopeful.

“And why,” asked Lynn Bonnett, chair of the New Haven Environmental Justice Network, “was news of this hearing not placed on the Tweed website? Many of us in New Haven didn’t even know about the hearing, and you know we have serious air pollution problems and high asthma rates. I feel this issue has not been sufficiently addressed.”

Valerie Johnson supported Bonnett’s contention that someone somewhere wanted to keep the public hearing beneath environmentalists’ radar. “On October 2nd I sent in via email my concern to DEP and I was supposed to have it responded to by October 30th; that’s what was promised, so we could respond further or do more research. But when did I hear from you? On December 2nd. There’s something wrong here.”

Whether there is or isn’t will be explored further with a continuation of these public hearings in Hartford on Thursday. Then on Dec. 12 and 13 more hearings are to be held, also in Hartford, to accept evidentiary testimony, that is from experts, not the general public. Deshais said, however, she would accept statements of concern from the public via email up to Dec. 29. After that, and based on all the hearings, Deshais writes a recommendation to the commissioner of the DEP to accept the plan, reject, or modify it.