19930501 Ver 2_Public Comments_20091207 (4)

Mcmillan, Ian
From: Karoly, Cyndi
Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 9:24 AM
To: Mcmillan, Ian
Subject: FW: Macon County Airport Authority Application, Corps Action ID#2009-0321
Attachments: USACE, Appl comment.doc
and another
From: OLGA PADER [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 6:05 PM
To: Karoly, Cyndi; Lori Beckwith
Cc: Sen. John Snow
Subject: Macon County Airport Authority Application, Corps Action ID#2009-0321
Respectfully submitted, Olga F. Pader, 262 Mine Valley Trail, Franklin, NC 28734

Macon County Airport Authority Application
Corps Action ID#: 2009-00321
Public Notice Comment
Yesterday, just as the end of this public comment period is just a few days away, The Macon
County News (12/3/09) had a front-page article announcing that the NC Department of
Transportation had awarded a $2.2 million grant to the Macon County (MC) Airport for its
planned runway extension. I was dismayed, as were other people in the community, as this notice
reaffirms the flow of money into a project that will economically benefit a few and cause harm to
our beloved Iotla Valley and the people who actually live here. The Airport Authority will pay
TRC Environmental $535,000 for the archaeological survey and other work done until now. The
cost of just this part of the extension project is estimated at $3.5 million. The Airport Authority
(AA) previously received a $712,800 federal grant specifically for the runway extension with
$335,000 local matching funds committed. Adding just these known costs and income sources
leaves approximately a $3 million burden that will surely be paid by citizens through taxation, be
it federal, state, or local. The people promoting the runway extension and airport expansion surely
foresee a flow of money that will benefit their special interests and not the people of the Valley or
Macon County in general. I give this prologue before addressing the impact issues so that the
Corps can gain some understanding of the reasons why citizens are hopeless and apathetic and do
not think that the needs and welfare of this community will tilt the balance away from the profits
that will accrue to a few, such as the Cherokee casino operation, wealthy tourists who fly their
own planes, and MC businesses and political interests who wield nearly total control over the
operation and direction of this county and its people.
Statements made in my comments can be verified in articles appearing in the local press (The
Macon County News, The Franklin Press, and The Smoky Mountain News), the only sources
readily available to me as a regular citizen. Quotations preceding my comments are taken from
the Public Notice. Although I believe the project covered in this application is only the first step
to much greater expansion that will have detrimental probable and cumulative impacts in all the
factors listed in the Public Notice, I will limit my comments to those factors with which I have
knowledge or experience. I restate, though, that the negative impacts of this project and future
already proposed additions will irreversibly change our community of Iotla Valley and the lives
of all who actually live here.
1. "The permit application also includes impacts from various unauthorized activities performed
in waters of the U. S. within the last eighteen years as part of airport activities... In order to bring
the Airport into regulatory compliance, previously unauthorized wetland and stream impacts, as
well as the unsuccessful compensatory mitigation, have been included in this permit application."
The Corps here acknowledges that airport activities have illegally impacted wetlands and
streams and that the mitigation efforts have been unsuccessful. The Corps does not state,
however, if it or other government have imposed fines or taken any other steps over the
course of eighteen years to redress these impacts and to hold the AA responsible for these
damages and for the related costs that will now fall upon citizens to pay as they will be
hidden under current project costs. In addition, this finding makes it clear that the AA has
failed to follow regulatory requirements in the past and that agencies have not fulfilled
their role as watchdogs for the environment and the people. With this secret and extended
negative track record, the AA will require close and expert supervision in meeting the
requirements of this application to the letter of the law and the Corps and other involved
agencies must commit to providing the supervision needed if this application is approved.
2. Fish and wildlife values. A letter from Brian P. Cole, Field Supervisor, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Asheville Office, dated 3/19/09, states that their office had not been
contacted since March 4, 2002, about the subject project and prior to the Environmental
Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact being issued. All necessary permits,
including those from the Corps of Engineers, TVA, and NC Division of Water Quality,
had yet to be issued. The letter states their concerns for the lack of coordination and
because of "...the expected stream and wetland impacts... and because multiple
federally threatened and endangered species and federally designated critical habitat
(downstream of the project area) could be affected. Further, the letter refers to scoping
comments requested by the AA on March 5, 2001 on the runway extension, "the
construction of the new terminal facilities and parking and the relocation of Burningtown
Road" for which they provided minimal information. The letter recommended that "the
FONSI be rescinded and that the EA be revised to include secondary and cumulative
impacts before being sent out to all of the appropriate agencies for review". The public
does not know if this recommendation with its significance for listed species, their
habitat, and modification of the habitat of endangered mussel species has been followed.
I support the Fish and Wildlife Service request for a revision of the EA and that the
implementation and results of this review be made public.
3. Safety. "...stated project purpose is to bring the Macon County Airport into compliance with
(NC Division of Aviation and FAA) safety standards... require having at least 5,000 feet of
available runway and the appropriate runway safety area in order to improve the overall safety of
the airport". The safety concerns involved in this application and discussed by the AA and
other government officials and agencies have been restricted to aircraft, personnel and
passengers. The reality of the airport's location, surrounding area, buildings, homes, and
people who inhabit Iotla Valley has been totally ignored. Iotla School (Parcel #0106972,
MC Esrimap) is located approximately 850 feet from the Airport northern boundary. This
school is scheduled to be rebuilt, possibly southward closer to the Airport (Parcel
#0116869) with an expected enrollment of 400 children, plus staff. The Drake Cottage
for Children lies on a straight path from the end of the runway extension, less than a mile
away, and the Moody Home is on Iotla Church Road, probably less than two miles away.
A mobile home park, housing many families, sits on a hill about a mile in the direct path
of aircraft landings and takeoffs. There are two communities with large number of houses
surrounding the Airport, one on Haughton Williams Road and the other on Willow Pond
Road. In addition, many more scattered houses populate this area and hills, some going
back to the 1800's. Three major airplane accidents this year happened during takeoff and
landing, when most air accidents occur: the US Airways flight landing on the Hudson
River, the Continental crash in Buffalo, NY, in which 49 people died, and the Turkish
Airline crash in Amsterdam when a plane crashed one mile short of the runway, killing 9
people and injuring 80. Another factor influencing safety concerns is the geographical
setting of the Airport in the hole of a donut formed by hills. I drive by the Airport twice a
day five days a week and see it fogged in regularly, even when there is no fog closer to
NC28. There is a great difference between communities growing around an airport and an
airport expanding, intruding, and creating grave safety hazards for established residents.
Dire predictions are inappropriate. All permitting agencies must surely understand that
probability alone indicates that more flights and larger aircraft will definitely increase the

possibilities of accidents that could result in loss of property, environmental damage and
destruction, and human injuries and death. If such a catastrophe were to happen (yes, God
forbid), Macon County, the Airport Authority, and other government and regulatory
agencies will have to bear its financial and moral burden. I urge the Corps and other
agencies to study area maps and conduct an on-the-ground review of the communities
surrounding the Airport.
4. "...a separation distance of 10,000 feet (for airports that serve turbine-powered aircraft)
between an airport's Air Operation Area (AOA) and hazardous wildlife attractants in order to
avoid potential aircraft collisions with wildlife." Again, there has not been a thorough study
of the area surrounding the Airport. If there had been, regulatory agencies would know
that there is a large corn field right across Airport Road, extending the whole length of
the runway and more. Migratory Canadian geese feed on this field at least twice every
year in the fall and spring migrations; I have seen their huge flocks flying and feeding for
the past nine years that I have lived in this community. Birds don't recognize fences or
other boundaries. The US Airways Hudson River accident was caused when the plane's
engines were disabled after striking a flock of geese. The physical conditions of the
Airport and surrounding areas must be studied from all angles, not just with concern for
the safety of those flying and using the aircraft.
5. Historic Properties/Cultural Resources: Work on the runway extension was stopped
when The Chicora Foundation, the archaeological organization conducting the work in
2000 found the remains of an intact Cherokee Middle Town, including artifacts and 390
ancestral burials, under the ground. The local press has published extensively on the
findings which the Corps can easily access. I will just state some of the findings reported
by Tasha Benyshek, senior archaeologist with TRC, in the 3/26/09 issue of The Macon
County News and 5/8/09 issue of The Franklin Press: "house sites have been discovered
in every area that has been examined... many Middle Qualla artifacts, circa 1600 AD...a
spearhead, circa 2000 BC...work on a dig that is so intact ...It's a slice of time we hardly
ever get...It's pretty unusual ...two pairs of palisaded villages dating back to 1100 AD, an
unexpected find..." It is inconceivable that the Cherokee tribes, the NC State Historic
Preservation Office, and other relevant agencies have gone along with extending the
paving over of such an incredible slice of history. Equally as disturbing but practically
totally ignored in the Corps' Public Notice and other agencies' review has been the fact
that the proposed airport runway extension, airport expansion, and eventual construction
of an industrial park in Iotla Valley will destroy more than 200 years of the cultural,
historical and social heritage of lotla and Burningtown since originally settled. Kaolin,
the essential ingredient to make fine Wedgewood porcelain, was first found in Iotla
Valley in the mid 1740s. William Bartram walked through the valley or close by in 1776
and wrote about it in his famous Travels. The oldest gravestones that can still be read at
Iotla Methodist Church Cemetery (less than half a mile from the proposed extension) date
to 1882 which means that Iotla was home to families, many of whose descendants still
live here, since the early 19th century. The family that owns the cow pasture adjacent to
and straight west of the extension and the hay fields across from it has been here since
1879 and still farm on their lands. Mine symbols for mica and other minerals can still be
seen on topo maps and mine remnants are all around the airport and throughout the area.
The irreversible damages to historical properties and cultural resources must be given
significant weight in the permitting review.
6. Aesthetics, Economics, Conservation: As described above, Iotla Valley is a beautiful,
pristine (except for the Airport), and serene farming and residential community whose
appearance and character will be permanently disfigured by the continued expansion of
the Airport as the runway extension is just the first step in plans acknowledged by Macon
County and Airport Authority officials. Families still raise cattle, hay, and crops in fields
surrounding the airport and throughout the Valley. Loss of property values must also be
considered as homes and land lose value as noise, air pollution, possibility of leaks, and
so on make this area less desirable to live in.
7. Considerations of Properly Ownership: Only two roads provide access to the MC
Airport from NC28 (Airport Road and Iotla Church Road), both of which are 2-lane,
narrow, winding country roads with houses, pastures, and other structures built close to
the roads. Widening these roads will be a necessity as the Airport continues to expand
leading to the possibility of people having to give up part of their properties through
eminent domain. Property rights, a key issue for many residents, must be considered in
granting this permit.
8. The needs and welfare of the people: In the entire Memorandum of Agreement between the
involved government agencies and Indian tribes (Federal Aviation Administration, Macon
County Airport Authority, NC State Historic Preservation Office, Eastern Band of the Cherokee
Indians, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, Advisory
Council Historic Preservation, and NC Department of Transportation), Iotla Valley is mentioned
once in the description of the airport tract. The Valley residents, people whose homes are close
to the airport and who live, work and play here, are not mentioned even once. These live
human beings must now be taken into account when the possible impacts of the proposed project
and future ramifications are reviewed.
The communities of Iotla Valley and Burningtown, the people of Iotla Valley and Burningtown,
who will suffer most from the impacts of the present project and future airport expansion have not
been considered by any of the agencies and people in all the years that this project has been
tossed around. When the Finding of No Significant Impact in the Environmental Assessment for
the project was issued, to whom and to what would there be "No significant impact"? There will
be many probable, cumulative, destructive, and irreversible impacts in all factors studied by the
permit application. The Little T, considered one of most pristine rivers in the nation, will be
degraded by silt and damages to Iotla Creek and Branch. There will be damages to native flora
and fauna' from increased lighting, pollution, oil spills, fuel dumping, and so on. Farmers, horse
owners and cattle raisers will suffer monetary damages and have their ways of life ruined. We
who live here and were never consulted will surely feel the impacts. The damaging impacts on
our daily lives, on our old timers being able to pass their remaining years in the place they grew
up in and love, the future of our children and their safety, the economic burden we will bear are
too valuable and priceless not to be considered and given full weight.
For all these reasons, I respectfully urge the Corps of Engineers (and the NC Division of Water
Quality) to deny this permit as no possible mitigation could reverse all the damaging impacts
detailed above. Olga F. Pader