Efforts To Reduce Jet Engine
Air Pollution Take a Set-Back

The Reuters news agency reported on November 23 that State and local air-pollution agencies were pulling out of talks to develop a voluntary program for reducing pollution from aircraft engines, after five years of work that has produced no acceptable results.

Officials with the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators (STAPPA) and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials (ALAPCO) joined talks in 1999 to reduce pollution from aircraft engines. In a joint letter, the presidents of the two associations told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration on November 22, “More than five years later, we are extremely disappointed that no progress was made concerning the primary objective of reducing aircraft emissions.”

Agreement Unreachable

The two associations reported that they could not reach any agreement with the representatives of the aviation sector. The sole product of this effort was a proposed memorandum of understanding – presented this Summer – focusing only on NOx emissions from airport ground service equipment (GSE). In withdrawing from the stakeholder process, STAPPA and ALAPCO also formally rejected the proposed GSE agreement, which they found was not only “inadequate in scope and stringency,” but also “placed unacceptable constraints on State and local air agencies' abilities to protect the public from the adverse health impacts associated with aviation-related pollution.”

Primary focus of concern in the talks has been nitrous-oxide emissions (NOx), which are expected to double by the year 2030. NOx is a major factor in smog. Emissions from stationary sources (refineries and power plants) & from automobile & truck engines are stringently regulated, but there are no rules restricting pollution from jet engines. The Reuters report noted that major airports already have NOx emissions that are greater than those from large stationary sources.

Health-Threatening Soot Uncontrolled

The joint letter from the State & local groups said the proposed nitrogen oxide emission standard for aircraft engines was not strong enough, & excluded other pollutants, such as soot (fine airborne particulate matter). The U.S.E.P.A. has been unsuccessful in introducing rules to control the most hazardous soot (at the 2.5 micron level), which is produced by jet engines & which is cause of increasing health concern in airport communities world-wide.

The associations hinted that they and their members might pursue legislative or judicial remedies, writing, “we are committed to identifying and implementing strategies to achieve meaningful reductions in emissions from the aviation sector.”

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