"We're looking into challenging the decision," said Thomas Giancristoforo Jr., president of Tinicum's Board of Commissioners.
"There is no love lost for this project," said Barbara Lichman, a California attorney who specializes in environmental issues and is representing Tinicum. "I don't think Tinicum Township is out there alone.
"A number of environmental agencies are less than thrilled with the conclusions and analyses" in the FAA's record of decision, she said of the document released yesterday on the agency's website to announce the plan's approval.
The plan calls for the loss of 81.7 acres of wetlands and would also require 24.5 acres of fill to be placed in the Delaware River to build the new runway.
Airport CEO Mark Gale said the expansion is desperately needed. In 2009, the airport ranked fourth in the nation for most delays.
"You get a reputation of either being a place where it's hard to get out of or you're sitting in another airport waiting to come into Philadelphia," Gale said.
The majority of delays occur in Philadelphia during poor weather because the runways are too close to one another to allow two planes to land or take off simultaneously.
He said that some airports have the option of running triple operations but that "we don't have the ability to run dual operations."
"That's a serious generator of delays," Gale said.
Delays would be cut from an average of 10 minutes now to 5.2 minutes in 2025, Gale said.
But David McCann, president of Tinicum Township's Residents Against Airport Expansion in Delco, said the expansion won't solve the congestion problems because Philadelphia's airspace is situated in the heavy traveled area between New York and Washington.
McCann said his group isn't opposed to the airport plan in general - the residents simply want to have their issues heard.
He said FAA officials "have been condescending and arrogant" in public meetings on the plan. He called the FAA's approval, "just another example of a long pattern of the FAA mistreatment of Tinicum Township."
