Thank you Rye Select Board for protecting our Seacoast communities from environmental and health impacts resulting from the proposed Pease Cargo Hub! Please share and sign our petition below!
TOWN OF RYE • OFFICE OF SELECTMEN
10 Central Road, Rye, NH 03870-2522
(603) 964-5523 • Fax (603) 964-1516
VIA US Mail and Email atp.brean@peasedev.org, info@peasedev.org ,
April 11, 2022
PDA Board of Directors
Paul Brean,Executive Director Pease Development Authority 55 International Drive, Portsmouth; NH 03801
Re: Proposed Cargo Facilities
Dear PDA Board and Mr. Brean:
We write to you regarding the proposed air cargo facilities at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease. The negative affects air cargo will have on the dynamic of our communities and the Seacoast are numerous and cannot be understated, as we outline below:
Noise
There will be a significant increase in aircraft noise, particularly with nighttime air freight flights, that will disturb the sleep of seacoast residents. Stage four aircraft, such as we see with the Pegasus KC 46A aircraft, do not solve this problem. That said, we fully support our military flights which protect our democracy;however, we do not support the additional of the proposed commercial freighter aircraft.
Numerous studies have shown that airplane noise particularly during the night, causes physical and mental health issues, particularly to the elderly and to children. "Although well recognized as an environmental harm, there is now considerable recent literature on the adverse health effects of noise on children's education and cardiovascular disease." Further, experts state that "there is insufficient appreciation of the fact that aircraft noise has substantial effects on cardiovascular disease including hypertension, ischemic heart disease, heart failure and stroke" and that there must be"revised policies and actions to ensure there is an equitable balance between economic benefit and the health and wellbeing of communities [because] [t]he cost and long-term consequences of inaction will be considerable."(1)
Environment
There will be environmental impacts from plane exhaust ultra fine particles, de-icing, fueling, plane maintenance, and increased truck traffic (2). The seacoast area has already been rocked by PFAS water contamination at Pease as well as from the Coakley landfill, and by the seacoast cancer cluster. We should be doing everything we can to decrease environmental pollutants and the risks they present to our residents' health, not increase them.
Infrastructure
The seacoast municipalities and the State, like the rest of the country, are suffering from aging infrastructure such as roads, drainage and bridges.(3 ) Air cargo will bring an increase in tractor trailer traffic to the seacoast area, further degrading our infrastructure. The cost of this damage will fall to the State and Town taxpayers to repair and maintain over the next 30+ years (or place increasing demand and reliance on federal funds) with no financial assistance from the developer or air cargo tenants. The trucks will either travel on I-95 to out-of-state destinations, resultingin benefits to out-of-state businesses and consumers, with the State and N.H. municipalities bearing the brunt of these impacts; and/or, thetrucks will be traveling on State roads - RT 4, Rt 101, Rt 33 - furtherimpacting more NH infrastructure.
Types of Jobs
It appears that most of the jobs "created" will be ramp workers for the aircraft or warehouse workers for distribution. Using, for example, FedEx's figures for such jobs, employees in these categories range $16-$32/hr, plus benefits, resulting in annual salaries ranging from $30,000 - $61,000, before deductions.(4) As anyone can see from driving through the seacoast or the State, these types of jobs already exist and can't be filled now; we don't need more of these types of jobs on the seacoast, there are no local workers to fill them.( 5 ). If new workers in the above pay categories move to the seacoast they will compete with our hospitals, nursing home, and hospitality workers for the limited affordable housing in the area. This will further impose difficulties for these businesses to provide their services in the seacoast
Size and Scale
Finally, we do not agree with recent representations that this project will not be "large" and will have minimal impacts to the area. The Air Cargo facilities must be built large enough to make money, and presently the proposal presented to the PDA in January represented two facilities each with 2 phases, which, upon full build-out, will be 400,000 sf+ 324,000 sf for total of 724,000 square feet with a project development cost of $30 to $70 million.6 Air cargo projects smaller than this were recently built in such major metropolis areas as Pittsburg (140,000 st), Indianapolis (300,000 st), Anchorage (500,000 sf and 300,000 sf facilities were added: "[Anchorage is the] number two airport in the United States for landed weight of cargo aircraft . . . and is one of the top five airports in the world for cargo throughput"), and Toronto (400,000sf: "Canada's busiest and largest airport" (7). Even if this is scaled back, this will not be a small project with minimal impacts to the seacoast and the State. The proposed air cargo facilities are large even in comparison to major North American cities; this project, if allowed, is not appropriate for the seacoast of N.H. and will completely change the area.
https://qz.com/2084675/shipping-giant-maersk-invests-in-high-emissions-air-freight/
Town Website: www.town.rye.nh.usE-mail:Selectmen@town.rye.nh.us
(3) https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AJP-State-Fact-Sheet-NH.pdf
(5) https://www.nj.com/opinion/2022/03/do-we-really-need-an-amazon-air-hub-at-newark-airport opinion.html?outputType=amp
(6) Pease Development Authority Board of DirectorsProposed Development Presentation, January 20, 2022by ProCon and Kane. https://peasedev.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/1-20-2022-Public-Board-Packet.pdf
(7) https://www.aircargonews.net/cargo-airport/new-cargo-facility-to-be-built-at-pittsburgh-international/:https://www.ind.com/business/air-service-cargo:https://www.akbizmag.com/industry/transportation/thinking big-at-the-ted-stevens-anchorage-international-airport/:
http://www.matthewssouthwest.com/project page/vista-cargo/
The PDA is required by statute to "act in a manner which is consistent with the public good," and to consider not just revenues and benefits to the State, but also the "environment, and quality of life of the affected communities, [and] the seacoast region." RSA 12-G:7, II; RSA 12-G:l, IL The overwhelming negative impacts aircargo facilities will have on the communities and the entire seacoast significantly outweigh the few potential economic benefits air cargo could offer the area or the State. Given your statutory obligations, we urge you not to offer a lease for air cargo facilities to any tenant, or act in any other manner which allows for additional air cargo facilities at Pease.
The New Hampshire seacoast is a unique, beautiful, limited resource, as well as a tourist boon for the State. Air cargo will change all this for the worse. As elected representatives for the Town of Rye, we are committed to preservation of our environment and quality of life in ourTown and the entire seacoast area, and we urge you to ensure the right decision is made for the seacoast.
Thank you for your time, your dedication and commitment to the PDA, and your consideration of this letter.
cc: Newington Select Board, Greenland Select Board, Durham City Council, Portsmouth City Council, Dover City Council, Kittery, Maine City Council, Eliot, Maine Select Board, York, Maine Board of Selectmen