The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) sent a notice of violation to oil companies and fuel supplier Avfuel, as well as to more than two dozen companies at 25 California airports, notifying them that they have been violating the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act (Proposition 65). The warning serves 60-day notice that the CEH plans to file a lawsuit against each company unless it warns people near airports about the lead in avgas, stops using leaded avgas and pays a civil penalty for violating the California health and safety code. The CEH is a non-profit organization that earns revenue by filing actions against purported Proposition 65 violators. When civil penalties are assessed in these actions, an organization such as the CEH earns 25 percent of the penalty as well as attorney fees and money from consent agreements reached with the accused parties. One of the CEH’s efforts resulted in tire companies switching to non-lead-based balance weights for automobile tires.
“It’s not too far from extortion,” said Jim Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), which is mounting a campaign to fight the CEH notice and potential lawsuits. “There are hundreds of law firms that exist to try to reach settlements out of court with businesses of all stripes,” he said. “It’s one of the great shortcomings of our American system.” As far as the potential harm from lead in avgas, he added, “There’s little evidence that anyone’s been able to produce, [showing] that the quantities of lead emissions by general aviation aircraft ever injured anybody.”
