Letter Asking for Lead Monitoring of Montgomery-Gibbs Airport

This letter was provided on behalf of MYF activists and is reproduced below.

On Tuesday, January 28 of this year, the Chief of the Monitoring and Technical Services Division of the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District (SDAPCD) was notified that San Diego City Public Records suggest that the amount of lead emissions due to the continued use of 100LL fuel at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF) has now exceeded the 1.0 ton per year mark.
 
Prior to their notification, the U.S. EPA Region 9 and the California Air Resources Board were also alerted to this development.
 
Since 2017 MYF has increased their operations by over 79%. That would be from 207,000 operations in 2017 to 385,000 in 2024. Fiscal year 2025 has already shown a 15% increase over last year. In 2017, the EPA's National Emissions Inventory data base listed MYF as having 0.588 tons of lead emissions per year. Fuel amounts for 2017 were made available, but the airport has been less than forthcoming with100LL fuel amounts for 2024. According to the airport, the addition of Swift UL94 unleaded in November of 2024 has amounted to a mere 28 gallons sold to date (2/8/2025), despite the fanfare of them providing unleaded fuel to save the environment.
 
Although other industries would be monitored for lead on a daily basis if they go over 0.5 tons per year, the industry with the largest source of lead emissions in the US, general aviation airports, are not monitored for lead until they reach 1.0 ton. In spite of that glaring unfairness to mostly people of color that live closer to these airports, MYF airport in San Diego County seems to have exceeded that mark.
 
Should these statistics prove to be true, then the SDAPCD would have the responsibility to monitor MYF daily for the next year for lead – regardless to any changes they quickly decide to make. One would think that they owe that diligence to the parents of the children who live near Montgomery airport. Even airports need to embrace the fact that there is no safe level of lead in our blood.
 
 
Thank you,
Gary J. Keller
Robert Germann