The environmental group Friends of the Earth (FOE) is turning up the pressure on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action on leaded avgas, releasing a new report charging that lead emissions at 20,000 U.S. airports threaten community health. The FOE report, “Myths and Realities of Leaded Aviation Fuel,” notes that aviation fuel accounts for 50 percent of all airborne lead emissions and cites EPA estimates that 16 million people reside near these airports.
FOE has filed legal action and at least two petitions for the EPA to make an endangerment finding about leaded avgas. The EPA has indicated plans to release a notice of proposed rulemaking next year covering such a finding and then issue a final rule in 2018. This timeline coincides with the FAA’s schedule for transition to a drop-in replacement for leaded avgas.
The FAA, through its Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI), earlier this year selected unleaded fuel possibilities from Shell and Swift Fuel for Phase 2 testing. The second phase is involving full-scale engine and aircraft testing to evaluate suitability across as much of the existing fleet as possible. The testing is looking at engine performance ranging from a carbureted four-cylinder to turbocharged/fuel-injected six cylinders. The testing is intended to develop data packages to support an ASTM production specification and FAA wide-scale approval by the end of 2018.
However, FOE is hoping to push the timeline forward, or at least keep full pressure on the agencies to take action. “The EPA should make an endangerment finding on leaded avgas as soon as possible,” the organization said in the report, adding, “Once that finding has been made, the EPA should work with the FAA to facilitate the phase-out of leaded avgas over a reasonably prompt time frame.”
FOE has long contended that alternatives are available and points to actions in Europe to facilitate use of those alternatives. But in the most recent report, FOE also acknowledged, “it is important to note that the needs of aircraft in the U.S. and in Europe differ in that high-performance engines requiring high-octane fuel make up a larger portion of the U.S. fleet. Nonetheless, the EASA’s regulatory steps can provide a useful framework for bringing existing unleaded fuels to market here in the U.S.”
The aviation community has concerns about the ability for higher-performance aircraft to use existing alternatives. “Avgas has many qualities necessary to control adverse outcomes in our aircraft and engines,” officials involved in the PAFI initiative say. “Evaluating the impact of completely new fuel chemistry on the full history of aircraft production is an immensely complicated undertaking.”