We need to find some rare little critter that only survives on/near an active airport to add to the endangered species list.
I'll offer my services to raise a supply for transplant as needed.
The dioxin idea doesn't always work. 2 schools, a baseball park and an assisted living center were recently built right on top of a known pollution plume near my shop. Was front page news here when discovered, but conveniently forgotten when the powers that be wanted some cheap land.
So what else is new?????
Small town city counsels tend to be dominated by real estate agents ... because that is the only money to be made in bedroom suburbs.
We officially have an Agricultural Land Reserve in the Lower Fraser Valley (surrounding Vancouver), but real estate agents are always trying to get "waivers" from city city counsel.
Pitt Meadows Airport is officially designated as ALR and "aviation use only" but every few years, some real estate agent tries to get a "waiver" to build housing on airport property. "Meadows" is a bit of a euphamism because it is really Fraser River flood plain - 1/8 of an inch above sea level.
Soggy soil - near the river - needs to be pre-loaded with 5 metres of earth for a few years before it is stable enough to support low-rise buildings.
Over the decade, Pitt Meadows Airport Society had been trying to transform this expensive swamp land into an industrial park - similar to Arlington, Washington. I worked at Arlington Airport after the eastern edge had already been transformed into an industrial park. PMAS built a series of tilt-up industrial warehouses parallel to the approaches to runway 26 left and 26 right. They left the direct approaches clear for a few miles. However, local TV news reporters got all upset when an ultralight successfully force-landed on a baseball diamond under the approach to Pitt Meadows' main runway 26 left.
One of the more bizarre waivers is on land designated as "flood plain" Every few years, the Fraser River spring floods overflow dikes. Usually it only floods farmland, but with all the new "McMansions" being built on agricultural easements, it is only a matter of time before some McMansion owner will sue the city for flood damage.