Heathrow expansion: Third runway will breach pollution limit, EU warns

Dan Milmo, transport correspondent
The Guardian,
Monday August 18 2008

The European Union has waded into the debate over expanding Heathrow airport by warning that plans for a third runway will "significantly" breach air pollution guidelines.
Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for the environment, said he will contact the British government over the issue, putting further pressure on ministers. He said an expanded Heathrow will miss EU-imposed nitrogen oxide targets after January 2015 - the latest possible date that it can meet the guidelines.
"We will contact the UK authorities regarding this matter," said Dimas in a letter seen by the Guardian.
"Technical reports underpinning the Heathrow expansion suggest that nitrogen limit values near Heathrow will be significantly exceeded in 2010, the year in which those limit values become mandatory, and that this will be the case even after 2015," he said.
The government denies that guidelines will be breached "significantly" in 2015, contradicting Dimas's letter.
According to the consultation on expanding Heathrow published last year, the introduction of "mixed mode", which allows continual take-off and landing on the two runways, will result in a minor breach of pollution limits in 2015.
Mixed mode is viewed by BAA, the owner of Heathrow, as an interim measure to expand the overcrowded airport before a third runway is completed by 2020 at the earliest. Mixed-mode would increase the number of annual flights at Heathrow from 480,000 to 540,000. With a third runway, the number of flights would rise to 702,000.
The government has pushed back its recommendation on a third runway to the end of the year as it sifts through more than 70,000 responses to the consultation. Government sources have denied reports of a "wobble" over expansion plans and said the recommendation over a third runway has been delayed by the sheer volume of responses to the consultation.