By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun

     SAN DIEGO — A presentation by officials from the Mount Laguna Observatory to the strategic planning committee of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority, may have been the last nail in the coffin for the Campo/Boulevard airport site.
     The report, by San Diego State University professor and observatory director Paul Etzel, stated that development of an airport at the Boulevard site — about 15 miles from Mount Laguna's facility — would ruin the dark skies that are needed for the observatory to operate. The cost, that would need to be mitigated by the airport authority, would be more than $15 million, not including the cost of acquiring a new site and the loss to SDSU’s astronomy department.
     "It will be very hard to replace this facility," Etzel said. "And there aren’t many places like this left in California."
After hearing the report from Etzel, board members discussed whether, with this new information and cost, the Boulevard site will be an option for a new airport site.
     "Staff has documented some of these concerns and talked with observatory officials," said vice president of strategic planning Angela Shafer-Payne. "This will be studied as part of the environmental impact report for whatever site is ultimately chosen."
     According to Shafer-Payne, the relocation of the facility would be dealt with in mitigation for the EIR. The cost to disassemble the facility, transport it, acquire a new site, and rebuild would need to be addressed.
     Mount Laguna Observatory (MLO) is the astronomical research and teaching facility of the SDSU Astronomy Department. Unlike other science departments, the astronomy laboratory must be located in a remote environment, far from city lights, coastal fog, and above atmospheric turbulence.
     MLO began operating in 1968 and has grown to include three research telescopes equipped with modern, sensitive, low-light level, electronic detection systems. 
     The feds sponsor much of the research done at MLO. A fourth telescope operates as a teaching tool for general education students from SDSU and for some public education programs.
     Etzel said the extraordinarily clear view of the stars offered on the 6,100-foot Back Country peak would be blurred if the region chose to build an airport at either of the remote sites, with the Boulevard site being the most disastrous to the area’s night skies.
     According to Etzel, MLO offers perhaps the best vantage point in Southern California from which to gaze at stars, planets and galaxies because its skies are only 10 percent brighter than those outside the range of city lights, Etzel said. 
     In contrast, Mount Palomar's skies are about 25 percent brighter, due in large part to the Temecula Valley's mushrooming growth.
     Etzel said the light from a 3,000-acre airport, not to mention the development that inevitably would sweep in on its coattails, would be one problem. 
     The bright landing lights of the jets flying in from the east would be another, he said.

This map details the light pollution in Southern California. The blue areas which include the Mount Laguna Observatory, represent areas where the glow from surrounding lights is 10 percent from complete darkness. The green areas, where the Palomar Mountain Observatory is located, represent areas where the glow is 25 percent.

     The glow would particularly damage the observatory's ability to study the southern Milky Way and galactic center, Etzel said. It also could threaten the observatory's plan for a new $7.1 million, 96-inch robotic scope on the peak.
     He said interest in a fund-raising campaign for the project has been waning in the wake of the airport site search.
Airport economics
     In another board discussion, members requested more information on population and ridership.
Committee members sought more information on UCSD economics professor Richard Carson’s report, which questions whether flight operations at Lindbergh Field will grow as fast as authority consultants have projected. Carson says the airport effectively could manage growing demand with a pricing strategy that induces airlines to move to bigger aircraft, thus reducing flights.
     The committee said it wanted to hear from Carson as soon as possible, along with a rebuttal from a third-party consultant to the authority, who said it would be difficult to force a particular aircraft fleet on airlines.
     The authority insists its projections are sound. Those show that 661-acre Lindbergh, one of the nation's smallest metropolitan airports, is quickly running out of room to handle the aviation needs of a metropolis where the population is expected to reach 4 million by 2030. The authority predicts that the number of travelers passing through Lindbergh's gates will hit 25.8 million to 32.6 million.
     Shafer-Payne said, if anything, the agency's higher forecast is too conservative. She said the agency assumed annual growth of 2.2 percent to 2.8 percent and Lindbergh posted sizzling 6 percent to 7 percent increases the last two years. Indeed, the board has said it may order a revised 2030 projection if numbers continue to rocket upward.
     The agency has about two months to complete its analysis of its remaining options for a future regional airport — Boulevard, Imperial County, Miramar and North Island Air Stations, and Camp Pendleton. Another option is to make do at Lindbergh Field, possibly using land purchased from the adjacent MCRD. The board's selection will be offered to voters as a countywide advisory ballot measure on Nov. 7.

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