Major Oil Companies Named Legal Action, AvGas Coalition Promises To Fight

If they prevail, and that is hopefully a very big "if," this could be potentially devastating news for aviation, and particularly GA, in the state of California. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) announced Tuesday it has initiated legal action against ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, AvFuel Corporation and 38 airport-based suppliers of lead-containing aviation fuel, for pollution of drinking water sources and/or air around twenty-five airports throughout California. Under California law, pollution of drinking water sources above state standards would require the companies to cease sales of their leaded gas.

“The oil and aviation industries need to know Californians will not tolerate lead pollution that threatens our health and healthy environments,” said Michael Green, Executive Director of CEH. “We expect the industries to take immediate action to eliminate pollution that endangers children and families who live, work and play near airports across the state.”

The CEH legal action identifies 25 airports designated in a 2008 EPA report as those with the highest lead emissions in California. The legal action is directed against the fuel suppliers and companies that produce fuel sold at those airports. Among the airports with high levels of lead emitted from the use of aviation gas (avgas) are Los Angeles International (LAX), Oakland International, Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, Montgomery Field and Gillespie Field in San Diego, and others throughout the state. Van Nuys Airport in LA County, also identified in the CEH action, is listed by EPA as the airport with the country’s highest lead emissions. Oakland, John Wayne and Long Beach’s Daugherty Field are also listed by EPA as among the 12 airports in the country with the highest lead emissions.

CEH contends that residents near the airports are exposed to lead through air pollution from planes using leaded avgas, and in the case of seven of the airports, through nearby drinking water sources that are polluted by lead from avgas. CEH has notified the oil companies that produce avgas used at the 25 airports and avgas suppliers at the seven airports with nearby drinking water sources that their sales of avgas are in violation of California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act (known as Prop 65), which was established in 1986 to protect state residents from exposures to lead and other harmful chemicals.

Lead is an additive in avgas used in piston-engine aircraft, usually small planes classified for general aviation or as air taxis. In 2008, 550 tons of lead were used in the making of avgas. While lead additives are promoted to boost fuel octane, prevent engine knock, and improve performance, lead also can impair engine functioning.

The group cites an article in Flying Magazine which indicates that lead in avgas can cause spark plug fouling, valve sticking, piston-ring land contamination and preignition due to lead deposits on piston crowns. Further, they say alternative fuels already exist. For example, the group says in its filing that ethanol-free premium auto gas is an FAA-approved fuel available for more than 70 percent of current aircraft. The FAA has determined that aircraft using auto gas are as safe as those running on avgas.

However, what the CEH fails to mention is that the GA Avgas Coalition, an industry group formed to study the issue, concluded that those 30 percent of the airplanes which require higher-octane, high performance fuel consume 70 percent of the avgas sold in the U.S. ... they are the high-performance business aircraft on which so many business people rely. And after 20 years of research and testing, no true "drop-in" replacement for 100LL fuel has been found. The statistics are taken entirely out of context.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been considering lead emissions from aviation gas since 2006, and the agency released its advanced notice of rulemaking last year. According to EPA, in 2005 emissions from aircraft using leaded gas accounted for half of the nation’s air emissions of lead, and the agency noted that lead emissions from aviation fuel “are also expected to distribute widely through the environment.” EPA listed drinking water as a source of human exposure to lead, and also found that nationwide up to 16 million people reside and three million children attend school in close proximity to airports where leaded gas is used.

Under Prop 65, residents near sources of high lead emissions must be notified of the potential for lead exposures, and emissions into drinking water above legal limits are banned. In 2008, CEH reached legal agreements under Prop 65 with Chrysler and the leading makers of automobile wheel balancing weights to end their use and sales of lead-containing wheel weights, which had been identified as a leading source of lead contamination of California drinking water.

The aviation members of the General Aviation Avgas Coalition are exploring all options for supporting the named fuel retailers and suppliers.

EAA, GAMA, and AOPA released a statement in response to the threatened lawsuit.

"Because the National Airspace System belongs to the people of the United States and benefits the entire country, Congress has reserved to the Federal government, through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the right and responsibility to regulate all aviation activities in the U.S. The threatened CEH lawsuit in California raises the specter of a patchwork of state regulations governing fuels pilots may or may not use in their piston-powered aircraft.

"Equally important, at the heart of the federal aviation gasoline fuel standard is safety of flight - ensuring that the engine of an aircraft in flight does not suffer a catastrophic failure.

"The FAA, the federal agency with oversight for general aviation, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal agency with oversight for environmental concerns including aircraft emissions, are working with the general aviation industry - including aircraft and engine manufacturers, fuel producers and developers, and representatives of fuel suppliers and consumers - through the FAA's Unleaded Avgas Transition Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) to address the transition to an unleaded fuel. The ARC is working through a host of factors, with safety paramount, for transitioning to an unleaded fuel. These include certification, production, and distribution, as well as environmental and economic concerns.

"It is imperative that the issues surrounding the safe and effective transition to an unleaded fuel be addressed at the Federal level, and that the FAA and EPA be the agencies that address those concerns. The potential for this type of legal action at the state level highlights the necessity of FAA leadership, EPA involvement, and industry input to continue the safe transition to a new fuel.

"The lead content of aviation gasoline has already been reduced by 50% since the federal Clean Air Act was passed. But even as the general aviation industry works toward an unleaded solution, the Avgas Coalition has taken steps to further reduce the lead content as an interim improvement, developing a Very Low Lead fuel standard that will allow for a further 20 percent reduction in the maximum amount of lead in the fuel without adversely affecting air safety.

"Because several of their members are named as potential litigants, petroleum industry representatives to the GA Avgas Coalition did not join aviation industry representatives in issuing this statement."

FMI: www.ceh.org, www.gama.aero, www.eaa.org, www.aopa.org,