AUSTIN (KXAN) — Head of the Aviation Department Jacqueline Yaft said Austin-Bergstrom International is in the process of creating a “green team,” according to a Thursday memo.
In the memo to the mayor and council members, Yaft wrote AUS is hoping to get the team established in Fiscal Year 2023. The team will be made up of community volunteers, business partners and city staff.
Together, they’ll focus on the “environmental stewardship” of the airport as the facility expands.
In addition to the green team, AUS plans to bring on a full-time community engagement professional to ensure the community engagement is a part of future airport projects.
On April 7, Austin City Council voted to move forward with its plan for a new jet fuel storage facility for AUS. The location will be just south of the Barbara Jordan Terminal and north of U.S. Highway 183. But neighbors who live along McCall Lane have voiced concerns in the past about the facility’s potential impacts to the surrounding area.
In Yaft’s memo, she said in a move for transparency, the airport has posted online an independent third-party environmental assessment of the new fuel facility.
The airport is also contracting with a third-party vendor to get an outside look at the environmental and safety compliance at the existing and new Jet-A fuel facility. Yaft wrote this includes installing water quality monitoring at the new facility.
Yaft said AUS is also working to keep the new facility more hidden from surrounding neighborhoods and businesses by including screening, landscaping and public art to obstruct the view.
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