Santa Clara County House Reps Lead Colleagues in Push for Regulatory Action to Ban Leaded Avgas
Reps. Lofgren, Eshoo, Khanna, Panetta, & 42 Members Write: “Communities have waited for far too long to breathe air clear of lead.”
SAN JOSE, CA – Following a finalized endangerment finding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the dangers of leaded aviation fuel (“avgas”), Santa Clara County’s U.S. Representatives in Congress – Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), Anna G. Eshoo (CA-16), Ro Khanna (CA-17), and Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) – led 42 colleagues in calling on the EPA to swiftly issue emission standards for lead pollution by piston-engine aircraft and work with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on aircraft engine emissions standards. This is an effort to advance a full ban on the use of leaded avgas.
Leaded gasoline in motor vehicles was banned nearly 25 years ago and yet use of leaded avgas persists in approximately 170,000 piston-engine aircraft spread across some 20,000 airports nationwide. The EPA has found that emissions from these aircraft are responsible for about 70% of lead released into the atmosphere. Multiple studies have confirmed that children living in proximity to airports have higher levels of lead in their blood than their peers who live further away. According to the EPA, more than five million people, including more than 360,000 children under the age of five, reside near at least one of the airports where piston-engine aircraft operate.
In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan and FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, the Members wrote, “It is incumbent on the EPA and FAA to seize this moment and move forward with regulations that ensure children and impacted communities nationwide are protected from leaded aviation gasoline. Communities have waited for far too long to breathe air clear of lead.”
Click here for the full letter or scroll for the full text below.
Reps. Lofgren, Eshoo, Khanna and Panetta were joined on the letter by 42 colleagues from around the county – in 16 states and the District of Columbia. Signers include Reps. Alma Adams (NC-12); Nanette Barragán (CA-44); Donald Beyer (VA-08); Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01); Tony Cárdenas (CA-29); Sean Casten (IL-06); Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20); Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10); Valerie Foushee (NC-04); Jesús García (IL-04); Robert Garcia (CA-42); Daniel Goldman (NY-10); Raúl Grijalva (AZ-07); Sara Jacobs (CA-51); Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08); Barbara Lee (CA-12); Summer Lee (PA-12); Mike Levin (CA-49); Ted Lieu (CA-36); Stephen Lynch (MA-08); Doris Matsui (CA-07); Jennifer McClellan (VA-04); Betty McCollum (MN-04); Seth Moulton (MA-06); Kevin Mullin (CA-15); Grace Napolitano (CA-31); Joe Neguse (CO-02); Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC); Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14); Brittany Pettersen (CO-07); Katie Porter (CA-47); Delia Ramirez (IL-03); Jamie Raskin (MD-08); Adam Schiff (CA-30); Brad Sherman (CA-32); Adam Smith (WA-09); Haley Stevens (MI-11); Mark Takano (CA-41); Mike Thompson (CA-04); Jill Tokuda (HI-02); Lori Trahan (MA-03); and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12).
Background: Leaded Avgas in Santa Clara County
In 2021, community concerns were spiking near a local airport – Reid-Hillview (RHV) Airport in East San Jose – so the County of Santa Clara, California sponsored a peer-reviewed scientific study on lead exposure. The conclusions were alarming and clear: the airplanes using leaded aviation fuel at the airport were causing significantly elevated blood lead levels in children. The kids living downwind from the airport had lead levels comparable with those detected during the peak of the Flint Water Crisis in Michigan.
Santa Clara County rightfully banned the sale of leaded avgas at County-owned airports. Unfortunately, there were obstacles standing in the way of that necessary ban. Rep. Zoe Lofgren spoke directly with President Joe Biden about the issue and received his support in the fall of 2022. Thereafter, the County has been able to enact their ban to protect East San Jose families from lead poisoning.
Actions by the Representatives
Listed in chronological order
- In February 2022, Reps. Lofgren, Eshoo, Khanna, and Panetta sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calling on the DOT to make the nationwide elimination of leaded aviation gasoline (avgas) a priority to protect vulnerable communities.
- They wrote, "For the communities suffering daily from lead exposure due to avgas emissions, federal leadership to address this environmental justice crisis is long overdue" and that they "are concerned that the FAA’s actions are hindering local governments’ attempts to discontinue sale of the very fuel that is poisoning disadvantaged communities of color with lead, rather than assisting with efforts to protect these communities from harm."
- In July 2022, Rep. Lofgren spoke at Environment Subcommittee hearing on leaded avgas.
- She said, "This is an important hearing. The idea that we would continue to poison the children in East San Jose for another five or six years is completely unacceptable."
- In September 2022, Reps. Lofgren and Khanna invited Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to meet and join them at RHV Airport.
- They wrote, "You are aware we have serious concerns about the harms of leaded avgas in low-income communities of color surrounding this airport."
- In September 2022, Rep. Lofgren privately spoke with President Joe Biden directly about the FAA’s backward attempt to stop the local governments’ effort to protect low-income communities of color from lead poisoning.
- In October 2022, Reps. Lofgren, Eshoo, Khanna, and Panetta, reacted to the EPA's endangerment finding and invited officials to come to San Jose.
- They emphasized that, "the EPA confirmed that leaded avgas is a dangerous pollutant, something our community near Reid-Hillview Airport sadly knows all too well."
- In February 2023, Reps. Lofgren, Eshoo, Khanna, and Panetta, reacted to the MOU between the FAA and Santa Clara County.
- They said, "This week’s MOU is welcome news for the families in East San Jose, and it is a small victory for other airport-adjacent communities in America."
- In July 2023, Rep. Lofgren worked with the Ranking Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to secure improvements to the language in the Manager’s Amendment of the House’s FAA reauthorization bill, which should protect Santa Clara County residents from exposure to leaded fuel used by small aircraft.
- Lofgren also offered an amendment to further improve the related section of the bill, but it was not accepted to be considered for a vote.
- In September 2023, Rep. Lofgren, along with Santa Clara County Supervisors Susan Ellenberg and Cindy Chavez, penned an op-ed in San Jose Spotlight about how the “FAA bill gives lawmakers a chance to prevent poisoning children.”
- The concluded that, “we must not let the FAA reauthorization provide a green light for the continued poisoning of disadvantaged children across the nation. Instead, let’s work together toward an unleaded future.”
- In October 2023, Reps. Lofgren, Eshoo, Khanna, and Panetta reacted to the EPA’s finalized endangerment finding that confirmed leaded avgas is a dangerous pollutant.
- They said, “We have long-been calling for a national leaded avgas ban and, with this new finding, we renew that call today.”
Full Text of February 2024 Letter
Dear Administrator Regan and Administrator Whitaker:
We write today to urge that you move swiftly ahead on efforts to protect communities and ban the use of leaded aviation gasoline. We celebrate EPA’s recent finalization of its endangerment finding for leaded aviation gasoline. For decades, impacted communities have known of the harms that this damaging neurotoxin cause to the human body and have been calling for an end to the use of this dangerous fuel. The finalized endangerment finding represents a major step forward in addressing the largest unregulated source of lead emissions and largest source of airborne lead emissions in the country,[1] but the work is not done yet.
As EPA’s endangerment finding makes clear, lead can cause irreversible, life-long health effects, particularly for children. This is especially poignant for the 5 million people and more than 360,000 children under the age of five who live near one of the 20,000 airports where piston-engine aircrafts operate.[2] Lead poisoning due to leaded aviation gasoline is a crisis affecting communities nationwide. In 2021, a watershed study found that children living in affected communities near the Reid-Hillview Airport in Santa Clara County had blood lead level increases higher than the children living in Flint, Michigan during the peak of the Flint water crisis.[3] Since this study was released, Santa Clara County has moved to ban the sale of leaded aviation gasoline at their airports, but pilots are still able to fly to neighboring airports, fill their planes up with leaded fuels, and continue to expose the nearby communities. Federal leadership is essential to comprehensively and effectively curb these emissions.
The transition to unleaded fuel will not only protect these communities, but it will also be beneficial to pilots and their airplanes too. Unleaded fuels lead to less frequent oil changes, extended lifespans of spark plugs, and other benefits to the operations of piston engine aircrafts. Last year, FAA approved the first 100 octane unleaded fuel for fleetwide use as a drop-in replacement for 100 octane low lead. We anticipate more unleaded fuels to achieve standard approval in the coming year. It is possible for us to begin phasing out the use of leaded fuels now and we must act with the urgency that this issue demands.
Now that the EPA has finalized its endangerment finding for leaded aviation gasoline, under the Clean Air Act section 7571(a)(2), the EPA must set emissions standards applicable to lead air pollution from piston-engine aircraft and consult with the FAA on aircraft engine emission standards.[4] Relatedly, per 49 USC § 44714, the FAA is required to set standards for aircraft fuel to control or eliminate emissions that the EPA has determined endanger public health or welfare.[5]
It is incumbent on the EPA and FAA to seize this moment and move forward with regulations that ensure children and impacted communities nationwide are protected from leaded aviation gasoline. Communities have waited for far too long to breathe air clear of lead. Already, airports, local, and state elected officials are taking up the mantle and working to end the use of leaded aviation gasoline well before the 2030 timeline set by the EAGLE initiative,[6] but they cannot do this alone. Every day that passes without critical federal standards and regulations is another day that children across the nation are exposed to lead. The Biden Administration must continue to make good on their promise to tackle the lead crisis and advance environmental justice by quickly and safely phasing out the use of leaded aviation gasoline.
We thank you for your work and look forward to working with the EPA and FAA on this crucial issue.
Sincerely,
[1] Transp. Rsch. Bd., Nat’l Acads. of Scis., Eng’g, & Med. et al., Options for Reducing Lead Emissions from PistonEngine Aircraft 46 (2021), https://www.nap.edu/read/26050/chapter/5.
[2] United States Environmental Protection Agency, National Analysis of the Populations Residing Near or Attending School Near U.S. Airports (2020), https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/P100YG4A.PDF?Dockey=P100YG4A.PDF.
[3] Mountain Data Group, Leaded Aviation Gasoline Exposure Risk at Reid-Hillview Airport in Santa Clara County, California (2021), https://files.santaclaracounty.gov/migrated/RHV-Airborne-Lead-Study-Report.pdf.
[4] 42 U.S. Code § 7571(a)(2) reads: “The Administrator shall, from time to time, issue proposed emission standards applicable to the emission of any air pollutant from any class or classes of aircraft engines which in his judgment causes, or contributes to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”
[5] 49 U.S. Code § 44714 reads: “The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall prescribe— (1) standards for the composition or chemical or physical properties of an aircraft fuel or fuel additive to control or eliminate aircraft emissions the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency decides under section 231 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7571) endanger the public health or welfare; and (2) regulations providing for carrying out and enforcing those standards.”
[6] In addition to the work done in Santa Clara County, see also recent efforts to curb leaded aviation gasoline emissions at the Long Beach Airport in California, at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Jefferson County, Colorado, and across the state of Washington, for example.
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