A six-year fight against San Diego City Hall waged by residents in Serra Mesa and Kearny Mesa has taken a positive turn, but leaders of the effort say theyre frustrated by how long it took to accomplish relatively little.

The city made unleaded fuel available to aircraft at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport for the first time Nov. 1, a move residents concerned about lead poisoning have aggressively sought — including threats of a 2022 ballot measure.

City officials say the move is an example of good environmental stewardship that will boost health in the area while still allowing the busy airport — the nations third-busiest for small planes — to thrive.

“All San Diegans deserve to live in clean, safe and healthy neighborhoods, and that starts with the air we breathe,” Councilmember Raul Campillo, whose district includes Montgomery Field in Kearny Mesa, said at the ribbon cutting for the unleaded tank.

While leaders of the resident effort are somewhat pleased, they said this week their fight should not have taken so long and that the result is less than they had wanted.

Several other similar airports in the western U.S. have moved much more quickly to add unleaded fuel, since a version suitable for most small planes became available a few years ago, the residents say.

And the new 1,000-gallon tank offering unleaded fuel at the airport is much smaller than the 5,000- to 10,000-gallon one that resident leaders envisioned when they began their fight in 2018.

I dont want to rain on the parade, but I think the city could have handled it faster, said Sandra Stahl, a Serra Mesa resident who launched the effort by creating the Montgomery-Gibbs Environmental Coalition. When I screamed loud enough and long enough, city officials finally took notice.

Quentin Yates, a Clairemont resident involved in the effort, said city officials seemed to drag their feet in every possible way during the process.

They just kicked the can down the road and then further down the road, Yates said. I feel like we mostly lost, but that maybe we got a little win.

The residents say children are vulnerable to lead poisoning and cognitive damage if they live or attend school under the flight path of an airport where planes use leaded fuel.

The FAA and state officials agree. The FAA has set a goal of eliminating leaded fuel in airplanes by 2030, and Californias SB 1193 bans airport operators from dispensing leaded fuel starting in 2031.

Lead has been illegal in car fuel and paints since the 1970s because of its toxicity. But its still allowed in aviation gas used by small planes, because many of those planes havent been able to operate on lower-octane, unleaded fuel.

Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

City officials say a key factor in the delays has been waiting for the development of an effective unleaded fuel for small planes, and then for industry leaders to embrace it.

There was a lot of skepticism from the industry about the lower octane, said Jorge Rubio, the citys chief of airports.

The city also had to find a vendor to agree to dispense the unleaded fuel, called UL94, and then had to buy a tank, get the tank installed at Montgomery-Gibbs and ship the fuel from where its made in Indiana.

It wasnt an easy thing to do, Rubio said this week.

And hes talking only about the delays since the city first agreed to try to add unleaded fuel as an option.

Before that, in 2019, city officials under Mayor Kevin Faulconer expressed reluctance to get involved in the dispute, contending it was a private business matter between plane owners and whoever dispenses fuel at the airport.

Campillo said he began lobbying Mayor Todd Gloria to reverse that decision shortly after both men took office in late 2020.

One of the first meetings we had was with the Montgomery-Gibbs Environmental Coalition, said Campillo, adding that he speaks to Gloria about the issue regularly during monthly meetings.

Despite those discussions, residents felt they had to threaten in fall 2021 to put the issue on the 2022 ballot if City Hall didnt do something.

Shortly after that, city officials formally announced they would prioritize adding unleaded fuel tanks at both Montgomery-Gibbs and Brown Field. Three years later, a tank has finally been installed at Montgomery.

This has been four years in the making, and its a testament to the dedication and the work of Serra Mesa residents and city staff, Campillo said.

The unleaded fuel can only be used by about 70% of the planes that use Montgomery-Gibbs, Rubio said. The other 30% need a higher octane, typically 100.

Rubio said two unleaded fuels with high enough octane for those planes are in the development phase. But he said its not clear when they will be available for use.

Rubio said Montgomery-Gibbs was chosen for the citys first unleaded tank because it has many more flights per day than Brown Field, which is in Otay Mesa.

Brown Field averages about 90,000 flights per year, while Montgomery-Gibbs has nearly 400,000. Its the busiest airport for small planes in California and the third-busiest in the nation behind only two in Arizona: Falcon Field in Mesa and Deer Valley in Phoenix.

The campaign by community leaders does not target San Diego International Airport because jets, which have turbine engines, use a different kind of unleaded fuel than small aircraft, which have piston engines.

Rubio said its unclear whether and how quickly plane owners at Montgomery-Gibbs will embrace unleaded fuel, which costs about $2 more per gallon at Montgomery-Gibbs — $10 versus $8.

Its going to be a slow ramp-up, but were thinking people will use it more frequently as they get to know more about it, Rubio said. We cant wait for the transition to take place.

Yates, one of the resident leaders, said a possible reason for optimism is that using unleaded fuel typically lowers maintenance costs for planes, reducing corrosion and pressure on equipment like spark plugs.

Joe Moreno, a North Park resident who stores his 60-year-old plane at Montgomery-Gibbs, said this week that lower maintenance costs could trump the higher price per gallon.

Less corrosion could mean longer periods of time between needed maintenance overhauls, he said.

I think that would be a big selling point, he said.