Don’t you worry man. Even though each F-35 on each flight will burn approximately 300 gallons of jetfuel before leaving the ground (thus within the local air shed). St. Luke’s and St. Al’s are getting such special treatment from Mayor Bieter they’ve agreed to tell the public the massive amount of extra air pollution is harmless. In fact if you’re employed by one of these local HC monopolies they will not be happy with you for speaking out against His Highness. Local liberals love the F-35 because the Mayor told them too.

There is a reason why the air monitoring stations are a long way from the airport. One can smell the kerosene fumes when driving past the airport.

So we should get rid of the whole airport?
God forbid we have more 737s with direct flights to Chicago.

And close the freeway down too.
No more cars!

Do it for our children.

If anyone is truly concerned about the health of our children, they ought to be preaching about banning Xbox and cell phones instead of a few jets.

I thank you for bringing pollution into the discussion. I have often thought that the air quality would have to be more toxic due to the amount of fuel burned on take-off and landing. I appreciate you adding another reason to be concerned and this will affect the entire valley so maybe the Mayor should think about this from the perspective of the future of Boise instead of the $$ now.

Those that oppose the F-35 will be alarmed for good reason, those that favor of us having the F-35 won’t care.

Citizens for a Livable Boise (CLB)
https://www.facebook.com/livableboise/
[email protected]

#LivableBoise

I’m fully against the F35 being stationed inside a large and growing city. However, I’d really like better numbers. Tons don’t have any comparison so don’t mean anything by themselves – so can you provide the comparison (what there is today) or as a percentage increase? Or how many new asthma or early deaths we are going to suffer?

New passenger planes are reducing pollution by about 1% a year. Turboprops burn 30% less fuel, wing tip changes save 5% or more fuel, and other ongoing enhancements keep improving our area.

Dr. Seigart reminds us all that this is NOT a NIMBY issue. This is everyone’s issue who values healthy air in our valley.

Thank you all for your comments–

Here are my responses in order as to how your comments were made,

Easterner–no response necessary, your comment is not constructive

Patty Ely–I will submit to the Statesman

PPSL–there are hazards to sending an article to a blog, they don’t get posted exactly as you sent them, probably due to some weird blog software issues

Concerned neighbor–I am continuing to research the effects of the air pollution on our community, but you may want to check out the following sites;

“Air pollution in Ada County has exceeded health standards and federal law requires us to do emissions testing of vehicles in order to keep our air quality within those standards. Vehicle emissions are one of the largest contributors of pollution. When a vehicles emissions control equipment malfunctions, the vehicle can produce 100 times, or more, pollution than it normally does. Identifying these malfunctioning vehicles and requiring them to be repaired significantly reduces vehicle pollution.”

http://www.emissiontest.org/questions.aspx

F35A Training Basing (2012) http://www.airforcemag.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Reports/2012/June2012/Day13/F-35A_training_basing_EIS_exec_summary_June2012.pdf

Ultimately, with the poor air quality we know we have now, why would we want to make it worse and risk the health of 1000s in our community?

I agree with concerned neighbor. There is an excellent air force base we could jointly expand for use between the USAF and the IDANG a short 30-40 minute drive away. A drive in fact that I personally know many make daily. However, please be open about comparing apples to apples. The very environmentally friendly website “Earth on the Edge” states that the average US car burns 4.7 tons of CO2 annually. So by only using this figure it appears each plane burns roughly the equivalent to 10 cars of CO2 annually using the data you shared. I sincerely hope they do not base them at Gowen but I would like more transparent data used by both sides when making arguments.

It seems clear that local politicos and business types won’t listen to any argument against the F35’s.

I’d like to believe the AF will and hope that there will be a huge turnout (I’ll be there) for the public hearing on the EIS. We need to show up in force and hope the AF pays more attention to our concerns than our locals do.

So simple…move it to Mt Home and the opposition goes waaaay down.

I still don’t understand the argument that recruiting for ANG pilots suffers if it’s Mt. Home. As someone suggested here quite a while ago, it would be much cheaper to fly these people to Mt. Home once a month, if that’s true, than incur the airport upgrade costs.

And I still want to know why the convenience of the small percentage of Boise residents who are associated w/ the ANG carries such enormous clout, when the (much larger) remainder of the population is told to shut up and live with it.

Again, we need to make a lot of noise at the EIS hearing.

Denise, the last statement in your Friday’s post reveals much about your opinion.

“…why risk it when there is a perfectly good airport just down the road?”.

So you are not REALLY concerned with the jet’s pollution affecting children, are you?
Of course, there are children living in Mtn Home as well.
Not concerned about those children? Down-winders?

You secretly revealed your true NIMBY opinion. Must be okay, if it happens ‘just down the road’.

But then, Denise, you are saying Idaho’s has some of the worst air, yet you continue to live here… must be okay for all of us too, right? Based on your expert analysis of course.

Or will you indeed relocate if Bieter is successful in hosting the F-35s? Can we get that on the record?

Why are you intentionally endangering your own health, if you believe what you write? This air is terrible! Run!

Imagine, the nuclear scientist living in Chernobyl saying, “This radiation stuff is already terrible and we shouldn’t add to it. But I’m staying here.”

So, the risk/benefit must be okay.
I’m staying, and breathing the air, right next to Denise!

EDITOR NOTE–Despite requests from other commenters in the past, I will continue to allow Easterner to comment. He should have been a trial lawyer with his expertise at cross examination.

Denise, Atlantic County NJ is listed as an EPA ‘non-attainment’ area for ozone pollution (VOCs + heat are the primary contributors to ground-level ozone). Luckily, Ada county has yet to reach non-attainment status in any of the EPA defined pollutants – but this also means a pollution argument is unlikely to sway policy-makers. I’m aware that Ada county occasionally exceeds the EPA values for particles (from wildfires), but these don’t legally count (which is another issue entirely).

Look, I agree with you – the F-35 shouldn’t be in a highly populated area where it will have a large effect on existing population, at least not without just compensation. If you’re actually concerned about air pollution, however, F-35s are about as relevant as single drops of water in the ocean. They are simply not a significant source of pollution, and it undermines our position.

Easterner—You state

“So you are not REALLY concerned with the jet’s pollution affecting children, are you?
Of course, there are children living in Mtn Home as well.
Not concerned about those children? Down-winders?

You secretly revealed your true NIMBY opinion. Must be okay, if it happens ‘just down the road’.”

I am not delusional, I understand it is a difficult fight, I am being practical–there is no way we can get rid of the pollution entirely, so I would like for it to affect as few people as possible, plus, it is my understanding that Mountain Home gets more wind than Boise, and less inversions, so hopefully less effect on the population there.

Your argument style, Easterner, suggests you are only comfortable in an online environment where you don’t have to identify yourself so you can attack people, I will pray for you.

Jason-it is my understanding that several people have tried to get Boise listed as a non-attainment status city for various pollutants, but they haven’t been successful (yet). I hope they keep trying. I also think it is ridiculous that wild fires do not count towards the score-esp. given that we are likely to see more of them each year. And, as I mentioned previously, the air quality measures for the jets don’t report several of the pollutants we know to be damaging.

Can we influence the politicians? Probably not, there’s too much money involved, but I had to say something, because I do believe the air matters as much as the sound. Drops in the ocean may not seem like much, but each one counts. Look at the studies that have been done around LAX

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0529-lax-pollution-20140529-story.html

Jason, you seem to be an intelligent educated fellow. Using the praise “drops in the ocean” to describe additional pollutants as a non-issue is really an amazing indication of your lack of knowledge about just how polluted our oceans have become. Fitting considering the worst pollution events in human history have been brought to us by the smartest people. Do a bit of reading about all the pollutants each newborn has in the tissues, or contaminates found in fish, or milk, or food crops. What a very foolish philosophy to embrace.

Bieter is not what he says he is, he can’t be. The dichotomy of wanting this very noisy fuel sucking smoke belching pig based inside city limits vs. all the idealistic “livable city” bullcrap he flaunts in lifestyle magazines. I’m sorry to say, but the only conclusion is corruption by greed and power. Indeed, our Mayor has both feet in the dark side now.