Aurora Airport: Public Paying Nearly $1 Million for Yet Another Master Plan Promoting Controversial Airport Expansion
"It is beyond dispute that a lengthening of the runway, to allow larger and heavier fuel
loads, benefits an elite core of operators and adjacent landowners who sell aviation fuel. Their
goal is clearly to make more money selling larger volumes of fuel... and ODAV [Oregon Department of
Aviation] collects more airport revenues in the process."
–Jeff Lewis, Founder
of Aviation Impact Reform
The Aurora Airport (KUAO) in Marion County, Oregon, serves wealthy corporate and personal jet owners, aviation hobbyists, and flight training companies. It is located on some of the best agricultural soil in the entire world. According to the 2017 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Emissions Inventory (NEI), it is the fourth largest lead polluting airport in the state.
This facility has a long history of chronic reliance on government handouts. Between 2005 and 2020 the Aurora Airport was on the receiving end of close to $9.3 Million in FAA grants, including COVID relief funding and Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act monies (CRRSA). Scroll down to the screenshot at the end of this article for additional information on federal dollars awarded to this airport. The State of Oregon also contributes public monies including a $2,695,020 Connect Oregon III grant for an air traffic control tower. (The entire project cost was $3,369,000).
According to the Oregon Department of Aviation (ODAV) website (see pg. 1-1), ODAV "is preparing an Airport Master Plan (AMP) for Aurora State Airport (Airport) in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to define the Airport's needs for the next 20 years...The purpose of the Airport Master Plan is to define the current, short-term, and long-term needs of the Airport...Funding for the Airport Master Plan is being provided through an FAA Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grant (AIP grant 3-41-004-022; $994,764). This project received 100% funding from the FAA, which includes COVID recovery funds. No local match was required." [Bold and italics added]
As explained in an FAQ document, "The FAA typically provides 90 percent of all Airport Improvement Plan (AIP) project eligible funding, with the remaining 10 percent coming from the local sponsor (Oregon Department of Aviation for Aurora State Airport). However, in this case the FAA is providing 100% funding due to pandemic relief funding appropriations."
Note: The 2011-2012 Master Plan for this airport was found by the Oregon Supreme Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals to be in violation of Oregon land-use and public process laws.
In a 12/13/2021 letter to Governor Brown, the Mayors of Wilsonville and Aurora voiced their concerns pointing out that in many respects the current master planning process is as imbalanced as the previous one.
As noted in the opening paragraphs,
Dear Governor Brown,
We write to you as the elected leaders of the communities located in closest proximity to the Aurora State Airport to express our profound disappointment at the Oregon Department of Aviation's biased handling of the Aurora State Airport Master Planning process. Our communities bear the brunt of impacts of the airport's operations, and yet the Aviation Department appears to be discounting our concerns and is primarily responsive to vested financial interests at the airport.
This observation is true in general, as Department of Aviation staff and board members indicate meeting constantly with private-sector airport interests, while rarely meeting with local community members, city councilors and staff. Multiple communications from officials at the Cities of Aurora and Wilsonville to the Aviation Department over the past several years are generally ignored and not responded to.
The Cities of Aurora and Wilsonville, along with other Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) members to the Department of Aviation's Aurora State Airport Master Planning process such as 1000 Friends of Oregon and Friends of French Prairie, seek to raise significant issues of public concern. This federally funded master plan has gotten off to a rocky start in a manner that demonstrates the Department's apparent bias and inability at providing fair public processes that meet Oregon's standards for meaningful public engagement.
To read the entire letter click here.
Jeff Lewis of Aviation Impact Reform has released a series of articles raising issues of concern about the Aurora Airport and the master planning process.
To Sham or Not to Sham? Ah, Yes, Another Aurora Airport Master Plan Process... (11/28/2022) In the opening paragraphs of this article Lewis points out that, "The current Master Plan process for Aurora Airport is a classic case study, showing how aviation interests work to suppress airport expansion opposition and force their own self-serving pro-expansion agenda. And the aviation interests are not just a few pilots or operators at Aurora. This is a state airport, run by the state of Oregon, via the Oregon Department of Aviation (ODAV). Oversight comes from two entities with a long history of taking care of pilots while making a mess for the rest of us: the 'Oregon State Aviation Board' (OSAB) oversees ODAV, and FAA 'signs off' on the key steps of the work product, the eventual 'Aurora Airport Master Plan Update'.
"The previous Master Plan process blew up almost twelve years ago. At that time, the contractor and ODAV had a rare moment of good judgment, when on 3/10/2011 they presented a recommendation to the OSAB for no runway extension. The reaction by pilots on OSAB quickly nudged an aggressive campaign by a beehive of other Oregon pilots, and by Fall the 'preferred alternative' morphed into a 1,000-ft runway extension. It was a sham. Years later it was realized that, in all the commotion, authorities never got around to formally adopting the plan. Embarrassing, but not a problem; FAA stepped in and is now spending nearly a million dollars in public money, to have a contractor, Century West, create a new Master Plan. The process today and the many returning players echo strongly the horrible events around the 2011 process. It is hard to shake off the feeling this is yet another sham."
Is Septic at KUAO a 'Constrained Operation'? (12/2/2022) This post includes an image depicting drain fields as well as a quote from a February 2022 draft version of Ch. 1-3 (83p PDF), as shared with the PAC in the current Master Plan process. Per Lewis, "On page p.2-39, there is text briefly summarizing Sewer/Septic issues. It states, 'Sanitary is provided by individual and shared drain field/septic tank systems. There are at least nine individual drain fields located on ODAV owned property that are shared for both aviation related uses on both private and publicly owned land.' This seems to suggest, ODAV lands are being used for drain fields serving structures on private through-the-fence (TTF) properties; it also suggests, at least four drain fields are not yet shown on this Master Plan diagram."
The Aurora Airport Master Plan: Escalating Jet Fuel Profits are the Major Incentive to Seek FAA Grant Funding to Lengthen the Runway (12/31/2022) As explained in the posting "The 'local based aircraft fleet' is mostly off-airport, in private hangars and aircraft storage condominiums on private land, with cheap through-the-fence use of this publicly funded facility. The 'transient aircraft' are mostly reduced down to a few jets serving elite clients on carbon-intensive charter flights (who then need to buy over-priced KUAO jetfuel), or to students flying in from Hillsboro or Troutdale (who generally use only the services of the control tower, not the FBOs [Fixed Base Operators])."
For additional information on the multiple legal actions taken by opponents of Aurora Airport expansion efforts see https://friendsoffrenchprairie.org/category/aurora-airport-expansion/.
Federal Dollars Awarded to the Aurora Airport (FAA Data)
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