To:

Palo Alto Airport Working Group

The following was originally sent to the SCC Board of Supervisors. It

is being sent to you for your education:

---
Santa Clara Board of Supervisors
County Government Center
Tenth Floor - East Wing
70 West Hedding Street
San Jose, CA. 95110

Elected County Supervisors:

One of the complaints of those using the Palo Alto

airport is that there are costs for levees (building,
repair, etc) imbedded in the costs of operating the
Palo Alto airport which they feel they should not have
to bear.

The question, of course, is if they are the primary

beneficiaries of these levees as users of the Palo
Alto airport, why they shouldn't they be the primary
source of funds for the upkeep of these levees?

The attached scans are from local newspaper articles

from the 1930s and 1940s document breaks in the levee
protecting the Palo Alto airport. While the airport
was small in those days, the impacts were
none-the-less quickly noticed by the airport operator.

From reading the text of the articles of the day, one

can only wonder if:

1) Is there a current disaster/evacuation plan for

the Palo Alto airport that includes a "levee break"
scenario.

2) What personnel (Palo Alto, County, Federal,

volunteer) would be tasked to move aircraft from the
parking areas to higher ground?

3) With a documented four feet of standing water from

one levee break, how many aircraft would likely be
damaged by such a break?

4) Would the county be even remotely responsible for

damage to aircraft not moved should the levee break?

5) Who would be responsible for clean up (such as

deposited sand/debris)?

Hopefully such a disaster plan exists, with full

thought given to a levee break scenario. Hopefully,
the county is indemnified from all possible damage
claims by well thought out language in the lease
agreements which pilots sign in order to park their
planes on the city-owned, county-operated Palo Alto
airport.

However, if such a plan does not exist, and all of the

answers to these questions are not readily available
-- then it would seem that the pilots would be the
most likely group to be responsible for the physical
security of their planes -- not the County (or
Federal) taxpayer, and most certainly not the Palo
Alto taxpayer!

The Board of Supervisors is encouraged to ask probing

questions of the Airport Administration team about the
levees, their role in the successful operation of the
Palo Alto airport, and the costs associated with a
clean up after a catastrophic levee break.

Wayne Martin
Palo Alto, CA
Claims that the aircraft owners should not be expected to pay for the levees can only be
seen as irresponsible and greedy on the part of the aircraft owners.

Wayne Martin
Palo Alto, CA