Jack Saporito, (630) 415-3370

For Immediate Release:

Forecast: Aluminum Overcast

Arlington Heights, IL-The Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare (AReCO) is issuing a response to the announcements that the city of Chicago is adding hundreds of new flights per day at O'Hare Airport and that United Airlines, the Chicago Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Club are calling for a new runway and modification of the overcrowded airport to handle more flights.

It has now been openly reported that by the end of summer, air traffic in and out of O'Hare could expand as much as 20 percent, adding 500 flights to the current 2,500 a day, bringing the number of fights to over 1 million annually. "

This is exactly what AReCO has been warning about and it will only get much worse unless people take action now. People are already expressing outrage at this latest announcement," said Jack Saporito, the Executive Director of AReCO. Pity the helpless Chicagoans and suburbanites who have no control over the aviation industry's noise, pollutants and serious hazards. Pity the already overburdened roadways in the O'Hare area. And consider the taxpayers who will have to pickup the tab for most improvements, either to the roads or the airports, or the damage that the increased operations will cause their communities.

AReCO Treasurer Allan Martin states, "O'Hare area residents will now experience even more noise and more pollution. Based on industry projections, the airport could very soon double the amount of flights and there is nowhere to run, since over 2,000 airports are expanding to handle the massive increase."

Pleas from 58 top environmental, health and civic organizations and municipalities to Congress and to President Clinton to kill a bill introduced by Senator John McCain that increased the flights and reduced environmental controls went unheeded. Immediately, it opened Pandora's box, unleashing this first wave of flight increases.

AReCO's Saporito, who also heads a national organization, US-Citizens Aviation Watch Association with over 1.5 million members said, "Congress and President Clinton betrayed us. No attention was paid to our pleas! No one cared about the substantial public health problems or the serious damage to our environment that aviation causes. We stalled this horrible airline's sponsored bill for three years, but no one would listen. We asked Senator McCain and Congressman Bud Schuster to meet with us, like they did with the industry, when they introduced the industry's bill, but they turned us down, not wanting to hear our side. AReCO would like to publicly thank our only supporting Illinois legislators, Congressmen Hyde and Crane and Senator Fitzgerald, who did care about us.

Tim Millar, a Palatine resident says, "The sky is the limit, they don't care how many planes they put up or how many more people will die from the cancer and respiratory diseases that follow the flight track of an aircraft many miles from an airport. You can smell the jet fuel even several miles from O'Hare and you can see the black sticky residue outdoors on your car, lawn furniture, etc. You have to wonder what this stuff is doing to your lungs?" Government reports show that technology will not help regarding the environmental problems. It can only get much worse.

What we can look forward to might be seen in the case of Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport. In its Environmental Impact Study, it was shown that flights would double in 20 years. Flights doubled all right, just one year after they opened the new runway.

Charles Miller, a Mount Prospect resident, asks why the local anti-noise municipal groups haven't been successful at controlling O'Hare. "Don't they care?" he asks, "or is it really true what they say, that all they care about is their tax dollars?" "What can we do?"

You can find out more about these issues by going on-line to:

www.areco.org # # #

Contact: Jack Saporito, (630) 415-3370