Pierce County Airport officials are working toward supplying Jet-A fuel, which is used to fuel helicopters, jets and other modern aircraft, but South Hill residents say those types of aircraft are inappropriate for the recreational character of the airport.
South Hill resident Carl Vest, who has lived in the area more than 15 years, said he and other residents are concerned that providing Jet-A fuel is part of a plan to expand Pierce County Airport, also known as Thun Field, into a bigger, more commercial airport. Vest is a member of the Thun Field Advisory Commission, but his comments do not represent that group, he said.
“(Jet-A fuel) will invite bigger and heavier aircraft and therefore nosier operations at the airport,” Vest said. “This is a small recreational airport.”
Thun Field currently provides 100LL, one of the more common fuels for the older piston-driven aircraft frequently used at the airport, said Airport Administrator Michael Esher. Jet-A fuel isn’t just for jet engines, he added. Newer, propeller-driven aircraft are also able to use it.
“There’s a growing demand for the product,” Esher said. “It’s the trend of the industry, so to speak.”
The name “Jet-A” easily deters the community, he said. Jets are usually associated with loud noise — but newer aircraft that can use the fuel are often quieter, with the exception of helicopters.
“By its mere name, the connotation is that it means heavier aircraft,” Esher said. “It’s just not true.”
The fuel is not the only indicator of aircraft size and weight — the length of the runway matters too, he said.
Local residents like Vest point out that simply having Jet-A fuel available will make it easier for the heavier, louder aircraft that use the fuel to fly over their community.
And presently, there are no storage facilities for Jet-A fuel, Vest said.
Thun Field has two large underground tanks that store 100LL fuel, Esher said. Emptying one of 100LL so that it could store Jet-A isn’t feasible, because there’s too much demand for 100LL and not enough for Jet-A.
That will change once the public knows it’s available, and after a few years the demand will increase, he said. Still, it would require an approximately $250,000 investment for the proper equipment — an above ground tank, diking of the tank for spillage and a mobile fueler to transport fuel.
An international company located in the Puyallup/South Hill area has made an offer to Thun Field: It will provide the necessary equipment if the company’s corporate aircraft can use the airport and purchase Jet-A fuel at wholesale price until the airport recoups the investment, Esher said. He declined to name the company because the deal hasn’t been completed yet.
Neighboring airports, such as the Tacoma Narrows in Gig Harbor, already provide Jet-A fuel, making it unnecessary for Thun Field to supply it, Vest said. Local search and rescue operations, which include helicopters, often refuel there.
But that takes 20 or 30 minutes away from a search, said Capt. Ed Smith of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, which is currently in the initial planning phases of starting a regional aviation unit for search and rescue operations at Thun Field.
The Sheriff’s Department wants to first enter into a lease with the airport to move its offices and store search and rescue equipment in a building, known as the Puyallup Road Shop, located on the north side of the airport, Esher said. An aviation unit is still three years out.
King County’s Boeing Field and Snohomish County Airport have such a unit already and plan to work with Pierce County to share resources, Smith said. Pierce County is part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Urban Area Security Initiative, which gives special consideration to certain cities for planning terrorism prevention.
Under the initiative, the Sheriff’s Department is looking at ways to improve its response and prevention of incidents — and part of that is creating the regional aviation unit, Smith said.
Search and rescue operations happen very infrequently, maybe a few times each year, he said. Having Jet-A fuel would be helpful because helicopters are not very efficient in fuel utilization, so it would give more time to search and rescue missions.
Currently, helicopters can land on Thun Field’s runway, but not on the parcel of land where the proposed aviation unit would be, said Sam Yekalam, a project manager for Pierce County Planning and Land Services. To land helicopters there, airport officials would need to go through the process of amending the airport’s existing permit. This process is also in the beginning stages.
When it comes to Jet-A fuel, longtime South Hill resident Betsy Stubbs is concerned about the safety of having jets in the same space as older, lighter aircraft, she said. Stubbs is also a member of the Advisory Commission, but spoke as a private resident not representing the commission.
“There is a concern, at least among some of us, that the Jet-A fuel will bring a change in the style and size of aircraft that utilize Thun Field, maybe to the point of even changing its character from a recreational facility to a business facility,” she said.
Stubbs and Vest both live under the flight path of planes flying into Thun Field and think it would be inappropriate to invite larger aircraft to land near residential zones where children play and go to school. Other airports, such as Kent Crest Airpark, have avoided this community opposition by not providing Jet-A fuel.
Crest Airpark does not supply the fuel and doesn’t plan to, said Airport Operations Manager Rikki Birge. The airport is in a rural area, and Jet-A fuel would bring too much noise — and too much backlash from the community.
“We’re a small community airport,” Birge said. “The noise — it would just be too much for the neighborhood. We’d have too many complaints.”
Kent Crest Airpark is 66 acres and Thun Field is 240 acres.
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Washington airports that provide JET-A fuel
> Anacortes — Anacortes
> Arlington — Arlington Municipal
> Bellingham — Bellingham International
> Burlington/Mt. Vernon — Skagit Regional (Bayview)
> Chehalis — Chehalis-Centralia
> Chelan — Chelan Municipal
> Deer Park — Deer Park Municipal
> Ellensburg — Bowers Field
> Ephrata — Ephrata Municipal
> Everett — Snohomish County (Paine Field)
> Hoquiam — Bowerman Field
> Kelso — Kelso-Longview
> Kenmore/Lake Washington — Kenmore Air Harbor
> Kennewick — Vista Field
> Moses Lake — Grant County International
> Olympia — Olympia Regional
> Omak — Omak Municipal
> Othello — Othello Municipal
> Pasco — Tri-Cities
> Port Angeles — William R. Fairchild International
> Pullman-Moscow — Pullman-Moscow Regional
> Renton — Renton Municipal
> Renton — Will Rogers/Wiley Post Memorial SPB
> Seattle — Boeing Field/King County International
> Seattle — Seattle-Tacoma International
> Shelton — Sanderson Field
> Snohomish — Harvey Field
> Spokane — Felts Field
> Spokane — Spokane International
> Tacoma — Tacoma Narrows
> Walla Walla — Walla Walla Regional
> Wenatchee — Pangborn Memorial
> Wilbur — Wilbur Municipal
> Yakima — McAllister Field
Source: Washington State Airport Reference Guide, published by Washington State Department of Transportation, Aviation Division
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