& By JOHN

THOMPSON

[email protected]

If the city

of Atlanta wants to build a bigger runway for Hartsfield International

Airport, it's going to have to pave over some fierce opposition from South

Fulton residents.

Opposition

to the proposed runway surfaced during the early part of last year and

residents are still looking for ways to fight the huge development.

In early February,

members of the Hartsfield Advisory Committee were pleasantly surprised

at the standing-room-only turnout for a community meeting to discuss plans

for the runway. More than 200 crammed into the auditorium at the South

Fulton Service Center, and more than 50 had to stand.

"We plan

to rise up and be recognized," said Harry King Jr., chairman of the

committee.

Formed by the

Fulton County Commission at the urging of former Commissioner Michael

Hightower, the committee is working to gather and present input from local

residents concerning the city of Atlanta's plans to expand a planned fifth

runway at Hartsfield.

The runway

already has been approved by federal agencies at 6,000 feet to handle

commuter traffic, but Atlanta officials want to extend it to 9,000 feet

for larger passenger planes and cargo traffic.

Advisory Committee

members Tom Gardener, Rex Renfroe and Fulton County environmental director

Dr. James Fasson gave the crowd a rundown on impacts they believe the

expansion will have on the local community, impacts they said the environmental

impact study has overlooked or understated.

"They're

going to need two million cubic yards of fill dirt," said Gardener,

adding that the dirt will come from a quarry in Clayton County. "To

get two million cubic yards to that site in a year's time, trucks will

have to leave that quarry every 50 seconds," he said.

But when he

talked to airport director Ben Decostas, Gardener said Decostas claimed

the operation would have minimal effect on local traffic.

More traffic

will come in the future, Gardener said, as passenger traffic grows from

80 million to 130 million a year by 2015.

There will

also be additional traffic in the air, he said, with four new flight patterns

causing "further degradation of air quality."

Construction

will cause more soil erosion, and the presence of the runway will increase

surface water runoff, he said.

Renfroe addressed

noise, telling the crowd he has been trying since 1992 to get airport

officials to mitigate the current noise levels for local residents. The

environmental impact statement doesn't even address the problem, he added.

"There

is not a lick of mitigation of noise proposed by the city of Atlanta or

the FAA," he said.

With a longer

fifth runway, noise contours will shift farther south, he said. He also

took issue with how those contours are measured.

FAA will pay

to insulate homes where noise levels are at 65 decibels, he said, "but

only if the 65 decibel is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days

a year." And the noise level is measured using computer models rather

than by installing monitors on the ground, he added.

The committee

will push for better measurement methods and for purchase, not just insulation,

of homes at 65 decibels, he said. And it will organize class action lawsuits

to ensure that residents are paid the full replacement value for the homes,

not just their market value, which has been reduced by the proximity of

the airport.

That brought

Benny Crane, a member of the Committee for the Future of South Fulton,

to his feet. "It sounds like we're saying if the money's right, we'll

accept [expansion of the runway]," he said. "It sounds like

we're pimps and prostitutes."

King assured

him the committee will vigorously oppose the expansion.

And County

Commissioner Bill Edwards, who was a member of the committee before being

elected to the commission, said the group must also prepare for the worst

and look out for those most severely affected. "We're looking out

for the small percentage of people who have to move out no matter what

we do," he said.

Fulton environmental

director Fasson briefed the crowd further on the project's impact. Seventy

to eighty percent of those being relocated, he said, would be low-income

and minority families.

In addition

to 1,155 homes being bought out and moved, 11 community facilities like

day care centers and churches will be relocated, and 256 businesses will

be affected.

The blighted

areas left behind will attract prostitution, drug-related activities and

other negatives, he said.

Concerned citizens

also should phone the airport, the city of Atlanta, the FAA and their

elected representatives to make their feelings known, he added.