Aviation officials are working to determine whether blasting adventurers into sub-orbit from Cecil Field would pose environmental risk to the already polluted area.
The study is the latest step in Jacksonville Aviation Authority's plans to begin using the 12,500-foot runway at the former Naval air base for horizontal spacecraft launches.
Although the base closed in 1993, 50 years worth of spilled fuels, oils, solvents, paints and pesticides made Cecil Field one of the most notoriously polluted areas in Jacksonville.
Cecil Field was listed as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in 1989. Cleanup efforts are ongoing.
Neighboring resident Raymond Richard, 60, said he was concerned what spacecraft fuel could do if it got into nearby Yellow Water Creek.
Richard spoke at a recent public meeting on the issue. Overall, he supports the idea.
"I hope the FAA can separate the existing problems and look for if there would be anything in the future," he said.
An environmental assessment is a necessary step in whether the FAA will license the authority to use Cecil as a spaceport.
Todd Lindner, the authority's planning, grants and environmental administrator, said the authority paid Jacksonville consultant Reynolds Smith & Hills Inc. roughly $130,000 for such a study. The work is now under FAA review.
Stacey Zee, an FAA environmental specialist, said her agency has to consider how all past, present and future uses of the site could affect the environment. Whether this means Cecil Field would have to be cleaned up to become a spaceport, she said it was too early to say.
Airport authority spokesman Michael Stewart said the authority acquired its portion of Cecil Field in 1999 under an agreement that kept cleanup a Navy responsibility. The authority agreed to keep its projects away from cleanup work, he added, but also said the spaceport, at least at first, would open without any new infrastructure.
Stewart said the spaceport would serve as a small component to an overall rebuilding of Cecil into a logistics and distribution hub.
The cost of space travel would ground most would-be adventurers. Space tourism pioneer Virgin Galactic is advertising fares for the several hour voyage into weightlessness at $200,000.
Still, the authority sees space tourism as a fledgling business that could boost Jacksonville's economy while making Northeast Florida a major technology hub, said Senior Planning Manager H.E. "Chip" Seymour.
"It's going to bring research and development you otherwise might not get," he said.
[email protected], (904) 359-4025
YOUR OPINION SOUGHT
To voice opinions about the Cecil Field spaceport project with the Federal Aviation Administration:
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: (703) 934-3951
Mail: Stacey M. Zee
FAA Environmental Specialist
Cecil Field Spaceport EA
c/o ICF International
9300 Lee Highway
Fairfax, VA 22031
