"Atlantic City Airport officials refine plan for preserving wildlife"

Saturday, August 9, 2003

Airport officials refine plan for preserving wildlife
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
The Press of Atlantic City (NJ)


EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP - For years, there have been conflicts at Atlantic City
International Airport between the giant jets and some tiny feathered fliers.

But a plan is emerging to protect endangered birds and other wildlife that
make their home on the sprawling airport grounds amid the roar of aircraft.

Known as an environmental impact statement, the document is a prerequisite
for a multimillion-dollar expansion of the passenger terminal and other
improvements to the airfield.

The South Jersey Transportation Authority, the airport operator, has
reworked the plan recently to include even greater measures - 29 in all -
for protecting wildlife during construction projects.

The revised version won praise from environmentalists on Friday, just months
after they had denounced the original document as shortsighted and
potentially harmful to airport wildlife.

"This really represents a lot of progress since the last document that we've
seen," said Carleton K. Montgomery, executive director of the Pinelands
Preservation Alliance, a private environmental group. "I don't have a final
word on it yet, but it looks like that they've done some good things."

Representatives of the South Jersey Transportation Authority discussed the
environmental impact statement in detail Friday during a meeting of the
Pinelands Commission, a key regulatory agency overseeing airport
construction.

The authority and the commission are working out a "memorandum of agreement"
to regulate airport construction and preserve wildlife.

"Our critical goal is to protect wildlife," said James A. Crawford, the
authority's executive director. "That means that we have to enhance the
grasslands in certain areas."

The airport's expansive grasslands provide habitat for a variety of plants
and animals, some of them classified as threatened or endangered. A portion
of the grasslands would be destroyed to make room for construction projects.

Within the next five years, there are plans to expand the terminal, relocate
a taxiway, add an instrument landing system and build an airport hotel.

Longer-range projects include extending the secondary runway, relocating a
portion of Tilton Road along the airport property and building a new
interchange to link the airport and the Atlantic City Expressway.

Airport officials say they hope to strike a balance that would allow
expansion plans to go forward without harming wildlife. Measures include
diverting construction projects to less environmentally sensitive areas or
delaying work until birds have completed their nesting season.

Francis Rapa, a Pinelands Commission spokesman, said his agency is
encouraged by the latest version of the transportation authority's wildlife
preservation plan. But he noted that both agencies still must reach a final
agreement.

"It's the commission's position that any outcome in terms of development on
this site must take the wildlife under consideration," he said.

Much of the airport's wildlife plan focuses on safeguards for two species of
birds - the upland sandpiper, which is classified as endangered, and the
grasshopper sparrow, considered threatened. There have long been conflicts
between the birds' nesting season and construction projects.

Montgomery, of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, said there is plenty of
open space at the airport to protect the upland sandpipers and probably the
grasshopper sparrows, too.

In another step, the transportation authority plans to form an advisory
committee to help oversee airport projects and their impact on wildlife. It
would consist of government agencies and possibly representatives of some
private environmental groups, such as the Pinelands Preservation Alliance
and the New Jersey Audubon Society.

"I don't think that it would be a problem. I don't think that our goal is to
exclude any of those groups," Crawford said.

Montgomery said his group and probably the Audubon Society would welcome the
chance to join the advisory committee.

"This is the beginning of a broader discussion of these plans," Montgomery
said, adding that there is still time to further refine the airport
environmental impact statement.


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