Airport Authority votes to require EIS for mail hub

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 3:01 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO, Nev. - The Washoe County Airport Authority has voted to require the U.S. Postal Service to conduct a detailed environmental impact statement before establishing a regional sorting hub here.

Thursday's 4-3 vote requiring the lengthy, expensive study could doom the project, the board's attorney said.

"In my view, it is highly unlikely the post office will go any farther," Richard Simon told board members before the vote.

An EIS could take a year to complete and cost around $1 million, he said. The Postal Service had wanted to make the move to Reno-Tahoe International Airport within a few weeks.

Residents who live near the airport welcomed the board's action. Many opposed the hub because they did not want noisy planes flying over their homes during the wee hours of the night.

The hub would have eight Boeing 727-200s taking off between midnight and 2:30 a.m.

The Postal Service is already doing an abbreviated environmental study, called an environmental assessment, to analyze citizens' concerns of noise problems and air pollution.

An environmental impact statement is much more detailed and generally includes such issues as traffic, hazardous waste and threatened and endangered species.

Postal Service spokeswoman Teresa Rudkin said the agency would continue work on the environmental assessment and submit it to the board in a few weeks.

She could not immediately say if the Postal Service would agree to do the EIS.

"Who knows, maybe the results of the EA will give the board the information they seem to be looking for," Rudkin said. "They voted to require us to do an EIS, they could vote to not require one.

"We've come this far, we're certainly going to finish it."