MIDDLETON, Wis. — Leaded gas burned by small piston aircraft is the largest source of lead air contamination in the country. When it comes to the Middleton Municipal Airport, a study found it is not a significant source of lead in children, but some aren’t convinced.
Public Health Madison & Dane County released a report this week that concluded the agency “does not have evidence that the Middleton Municipal Airport has contributed to elevated blood lead levels in the surrounding community, yet this finding is limited by available data.”
According to the study, most lead exposure in Dane County comes from paint chips and contaminated dust – though “the results do not diminish the fact that leaded avgas emissions does contribute to environmental levels of lead alongside other current and/or historical sources of lead in Dane County.”
PHMDC analyzed the lead level test results of 1,700 kids who lived in the Town and City of Middleton from 2010 to 2020. Nine of them reported lead poisoning, and the only one who lived a kilometer away from the airport was exposed to lead at a previous home.
Small piston engine aircraft currently run on 100-octane low-lead gasoline.
Overall, the airport contributes about 32% of the county’s lead emissions, and while air lead levels were higher in closer proximity, the study found they were lower than the 2016 EPA standard.
“In other words, the potential health risks posed by proximity to an airport that support piston-engine aircraft operations are not created equally; an airport in question may contribute more or less than expected to childhood lead exposure risk within the identified 1 km hazard area,” the study explained.
“The report, as I said, pretty much speaks for itself,” said Richard Morey, manager for the airport. “We have always done our best to be good neighbors, consistent with safety and operations at this airport.”
But the data has some limits. According to the study, a child probably would not have been tested unless they lived in a house built after 1950, a house that currently or recently underwent renovations, or was enrolled in Medicaid.
“I give them a lot of credit for working with us, but they still haven’t gone the full distance,” said Town of Middleton Board Chair Cynthia Richson. “It’s about prevention because the exposure is cumulative, and all the authorities agree including public health that there is no safe level of lead exposure.”
The board has gone to Trinity Consultants for studies twice in the past — based on an EPA-preferred mobile emissions model.
Trinity found both the on-the-ground and aloft emissions of 98 and 72 pounds last year were below the EPA estimates of 130 and 88 pounds, respectively.
“We did modeling, you can look at the maps, it shows where lead is falling,” Richson said, “and it confirmed the presence of this lead being at ground level because they fly so low and we’re breathing it.”
Morey said he recognizes the presence, and danger of leaded avgas.
“We’re not invested in lead; we don’t have any legal alternative but to fly with 100 octane low-lead in certain high-compression engines,” he said.
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Middleton City Administrator Bryan Gadow said in an email to News 3 Now “on November 15th, the City Council authorized the purchase of a separate, used fuel truck to allow the Middleton Airport to offer a 94-octane, unleaded fuel alternative for those airplanes that can utilize it.”
Morey said 60% of their 100 aircraft would be able to switch to the unleaded alternative and it was supposed to come sooner; however maintenance fixes on the fuel truck and backed-up truck shops have caused a delay.
“Things drag out. I’m hoping that we’ll have it before the end of the year,” he said, “if not I’m sure it will be early January when we get it.”
Richson said she is working with the city and Dane County Regional Wisconsin Aviation to transition fully to 100-octane unleaded fuel made by the company GAMI, approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in September.
“I talked to GAMI several times,” she said, “we could potentially be the third on the delivery list sometime likely in the first half of 2023.”
But according to Morey, “I can guarantee you that our chair of the airport commission has been talking with GAMI, and I’m not sure who the town chair is speaking with there. I wouldn’t, I don’t doubt that some airports can get that, but the supply chain… promises, especially made by our sales folks – which I love salespeople — don’t always come through.”
“To change over from what they’ve been doing all of these years to accommodate one or possibly two other types of unleaded fuels, and to make sure that it’s all compatible, is quite an undertaking,” he said. “And the FAA is not delegating that they’re making sure with their own scientists that this is indeed a safe product before it gets widely out there and accepted.”
“As much as I’d love to be running unleaded right now we simply have to wait until it’s available,” Morey said.
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