The sale of El Toro should be challenged

Shirley Conger

Rex Ricks’ letter of March 17, “Cox didn’t help anybody but

developers with auction,” is right on target. Our representative,

Congressman Chris Cox, has served the developers well but has

betrayed the rest of us taxpayers.

While the sale of El Toro has been approved by the Navy, it is not

cast in concrete, since it must pass scrutiny by several agencies

before it can proceed.

Cox in the past has lauded the sale because of the high value of

the land and the profits that the Navy could realize from auctioning

off the land.

Despite Cox’s praising the sale of El Toro as a profit to the

community, the fact is that the sale would result in a loss to the

Navy Department of between $350 million and $600 million. This

includes the cost of relocation ($1 billion) and $252 million in

clean-up costs. The figure for cleanup is somewhat nebulous, since no

one knows how much contamination there is under the runways and how

much of this will rise into the air when the runways are removed.

This week, the Federal Aviation Administration released a forecast

that more than one billion people a year will be boarding planes in

the United States within a decade, an increase of about 50%. Where

will Orange County passengers go?

At the same time, the federal budget is considering spending cuts

for runways, air traffic control equipment and buildings.

This impending sale of El Toro to the Lennar Corp. is not yet

accomplished. It should be challenged in Congress, since this is

budget time and the nation is facing a rising deficit.

And the government must address the deficit in airport capacity

and its effect on the economy.

* SHIRLEY A. CONGER is a Corona del Mar resident and a longtime

proponent of an airport at El Toro.