LOS ANGELES WORLD AIRPORTS HONORED WITH TWO ENVIRONMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

 (Los Angeles California – June 23, 2014)  Los Angeles World Airports has been honored with two 2014 Environmental Achievement (Runner-up) Awards for Los Angeles International Airport’s (LAX) Air Quality and Source Apportionment Study and its LAX Dunes Endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly Recovery and Habitat Restoration Project by Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA). 

The entries were submitted by LAWA’s Environmental Services Division, which managed both activities.

ACI-NA’s panel of judges applauded the Air Quality and Source Apportionment Study submission and chose to recognize it as runner-up “due to its complexity, technical innovation and outcomes that yielded useful, previously unavailable information for the airport, the city of Los Angeles and the airport’s surrounding communities.”

This study, submitted in the Innovative/Special Projects category, is the first of its kind to comprehensively assess a major airport’s contribution to ambient air quality levels in nearby communities.   Researchers gathered more information for the study about the air quality impacts of airport operations than anyone had ever before collected.     

This multi-year project included an advisory technical working group of air quality scientists and researchers on the federal, state, and local levels, as well as community organizations.

Judges selected the LAX Dunes Endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly Recovery and Habitat Restoration Project submission for runner-up within the Mitigation category “due to its clear and precise implementation plan, as well as its impressive collaboration with multiple stakeholders.”

“The project is a notable example of an endangered species habitation conservation and restoration initiative that will serve as an example for airports around the country,” the judges said.

            The present butterfly count has increased remarkably from the fewer than 500 El Segundo Blue Butterflies that existed in 1976, when it was among the first insects to be listed as a Federal Endangered Species.

            To encourage the butterfly’s comeback, and after careful study and consultation with environmental experts, LAWA created the Dunes Habitat Restoration Project in 1986 to focus on reintroducing and protecting the coastal buckwheat plant, the butterfly’s sole food source and near which it spends its entire life cycle.

All entries were judged using the following criteria: environmental benefit, innovation, effective implementation, widespread applicability and cost-effectiveness:

ACI-NA’s mission is to advocate policies and provide services that strengthen the ability of airports to serve their passengers, customers and communities. Its members enplane 95 percent of all domestic and virtually all international airline passengers and air cargo traffic in North America.