EPA: Airport Should Help in Cleanup

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority to help pay to clean up polluted groundwater left behind by decades of aircraft manufacturing. The EPA notified the authority, owner and operator of the Bob Hope Airport, it was being designated a “potentially responsible party” for the cleanup. The letter did not give details for the reasoning behind the designation, the authority said. The $108 million cleanup is on property formerly owned by Lockheed Corp., which had purchased the airport in 1940. During World War II, the company made the famed P-38 Lightning fighter plane. Following the war, the Skunk Works was where the secret aircraft such as the U-2 and the SR71 Blackbird were developed and built. The authority acquired the airport property in 1978 and later purchased other parcels from Lockheed. The authority is disappointed in the EPA’s designation and does not believe the airport contributed to the contamination of the groundwater, said airport Executive Director Dan Feger. “The costs of this cleanup that the Airport may be forced to pay could result in increased parking rates, increased concession fees, and increased rents that will ultimately be shouldered by the traveling public,” Feger said. A lawsuit is pending in federal court to have Lockheed honor a contractual obligation to defend and indemnify the airport authority from any damages the aerospace company caused to the property. – Mark R. Madler