Thoughtless Airport Director Defends/Denies Airport-Noise Torment
Noise Polluters Aren't Nice
..And Seeks Expansion
Tuesday 4 February, 2003
Madison Eagle
Airport reps counter image of noisy air traffic
By JAMES LENT , Staff Writer 01/30/2003
Representatives of Morristown Municipal Airport sparred with Morris
County officials last Wednesday, Jan. 22, to counter claims from
residents of the area that the airfield is deliberately expanding to
attract more jet traffic.
The response came after mayors from several communities attended a
Morris County Board of Freeholders last month, claiming the increase in
jet traffic adds to the woes of communities seeking to limit noise from
the airport.
The mayors were back last Wednesday to continue their complaints.
"We know the economic value of the airport in Morris County, but the
amount of jet activity at this airport has now reached a proportion that
goes beyond nuisance," said Hanover Township Mayor Ronald F. Francioli,
a pilot himself and one of several mayors who make up the ad hoc Inter
Municipal Airport Committee.
The airport is located in Hanover Township off Columbia Turnpike but is
under the jurisdiction of Morristown, which owns the land and rents it
to the airport under the terms of a 99-year lease.
The freeholders sought to find common ground. "I hope you folks
recognize that because you're a profit-making corporation, there has to
be a balance," Freeholder Director John Murphy told airport
representatives at the board's morning work session. "Obviously, though,
there are three sides to every story."
Drop In Complaints
Airport Director William G. Barkhauer said the number of takeoffs and
landings last year had decreased by nearly 51,000, from a peak of
287,256 in 2000, and that noise complaints had dropped to just 286 last
year, from more than 600 in 2000.
"We've done a lot to make the situation better," Barkhauer argued.
"But for those who never want to see or hear an airplane, I don't have
an answer for them."
Barkhauer told the panel the airport has plans three to five years down
the road for a new $8 million control tower, to be built on the
airport's east side.
New hangars are expected to be built on two small parcels of land, while
fuel storage is to increase from 60,000 to 100,000 gallons, and a
concrete de-icing apron is to be constructed.
Once that is completed, the airport will have run out of room to expand,
Barkhauer noted.
"Basically, at that point, you have nowhere to put something new," he
said. "We are basically out of land and are surrounded by wetlands."
Barkhauer said the Federal Aviation Administration prohibits the
airport, which receives federal funding and is home to 259 aircraft -
including jets, helicopters, turboprops and more - from instituting
night curfews.
Still, night activity constitutes less than 1 percent of all takeoffs
and landings, despite what residents may think, Barkhauer said.
According to Kerry L. Ahearn, operations manager at the airport, noise
abatement efforts have been effective. He noted "Stage 1" aircraft, the
oldest and loudest type of planes, are charged $350 to take off at
night, and none are based at Morristown Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) controls departure routes, but
the airport has barred pilots from practicing "touch and go" operations
on Runway 31 because of Hanover's Ford Hill community at its end.
A study using computer-generated noise models has recommended that
pilots travel east over Route 80 and take an approach from the north to
the airport's 6,000-foot-long Runway 23, which takes on the bulk of
corporate jet traffic and is the source of about three-quarters of
complaints from residents of the area. The change would spare much of
the Bee Meadow Parkway neighborhood in Hanover.
Instructional pamphlets also are handed out to pilots to make them aware
of aircraft noise, Ahearn said.
Helicopter pilots are told to rise to a height of 800 feet above the
ground before traveling over residential areas. But the FAA does not
allow enforcement of the recommendation, which is strictly voluntary.
"You'd be surprised how many operators really do want to be
neighbor-friendly," Ahearn said.
Long-Term Issue
The noise issue is not a new one: Residents and elected officials have
long complained of the excessive racket from the growing number of
corporate jets and helicopters that frequent the airport.
For the past several years, the Madison-based citizens' group Quieter
Environment through Sound Thinking (QUEST) has documented complaints
about air traffic noise and worked with municipal officials, airport
representatives, the FAA and Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-11, to
seek changes in air traffic routes that would affect fewer residents.
Jet Traffic Increase
Jet traffic has increased substantially here and nationwide,
particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Major carriers have lost business to corporate charter companies, which
saw requests for private flights skyrocket in the weeks after the
attacks, Barkhauer noted.
For at least the past 15 years, Morristown has been the second-busiest
airport in New Jersey after Newark International, and Barkhauer
predicted operations would remain steady five years from now in what is
the world's busiest air space.
Meanwhile, the number of complaints about aircraft noise has gone down
from a high of 657 in 1999 to 286 last year, he said.
But Barkhauer said those figures are somewhat skewed by three "chronic
callers" he did not name, except to say one is from Madison and two are
from Florham Park. The three complain, "frankly, whenever they hear a
plane," Barkhauer said.
©Recorder Newspapers 2003
Noise Polluters Aren't Nice
Thursday, February 6, 2003
Okimi mayor resigns over offer to host US
drills
Tanimoto says he didn't inform assembly because defense officials warned
him to keep idea secret
The Japan Times:
HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) The mayor of Okimi, Hiroshima Prefecture, resigned
Wednesday over his controversial offer last week to host night landing
drills involving U.S. carrier planes on an uninhabited island in the
town's jurisdiction.
Okimi Mayor Hidekazu Tanimoto attends a town assembly session, during
which he announced his resignation. Hidekazu Tanimoto also retracted the
offer. He unveiled the decision during a news conference in the morning.
"I should have explained to the town assembly beforehand, but I was told
by the Defense Facilities Administration Agency to keep it top secret,"
he said.
Tanimoto's announcement came after the Okimi Municipal Assembly on
Monday voted down his plan, which would have seen planes from the USS
Kitty Hawk conduct night landing practice on Okurokami Island in the
Seto Inland Sea.
According to sources close to the mayor, Tanimoto has told the agency of
his decision to rescind his earlier offer, which was made without the
knowledge of the townspeople and sparked strong opposition.
Tanimoto announced Jan. 30 that he was contemplating the construction of
a night landing practice facility on Okurokami Island, including a
2,000-meter-long runway for U.S. carrier aircraft.
The 7.2-sq.-km island is about 4 km from Okimi.
Besides the town assembly's unanimous rejection of the plan, Hiroshima
Gov. Yuzan Fujita and local authorities in the region also opposed the
proposal on environmental grounds. A particular focus of concern was the
threat of noise pollution posed by jets landing and taking off at night.
Tanimoto has said he began studying the project about a year ago, hoping
to use the construction funds for the military facility to revitalize
the local economy.
He held talks with the agency without notifying Hiroshima Prefecture or
other local authorities and presented the project to the town assembly
Jan. 30.
In the wake of Tanimoto's announcement, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
said in Tokyo that the plan to relocate the night-landing drills from
their present sites -- the Atsugi air base in Kanagawa Prefecture and
Iwojima Island, 1,200 km south of Tokyo -- is now on hold.
"We have to accept it as though there were no plans," Koizumi told
reporters.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said the government will have to
look for a third site to host the night-landing drills, because the
original plan to relocate the practice to Miyake Island has also been
stalled due to the island's volcanic activity.
"The government has to consider (a third site) as there are
uncertainties about Miyake Island," Fukuda said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said that the
withdrawal was a matter for the town of Okimi to decide, denying any
national government interference in the latest developments.
"Whether to build a runway (for night-landing practice) was a matter for
the town to decide," Abe told a news conference. "It is their decision."
For nearly two decades, the Defense Agency has searched for an
alternative site for the U.S. military to conduct landing drills
involving carrier aircraft.
The drills, which started in 1982 at the Atsugi base, have prompted
densely populated areas nearby to complain of serious noise problems.
In 1991, some of the drills were diverted to a training facility on
Iwojima. In 1999, the Defense Agency chief at the time said the
government planned to eventually relocate the entire night landing
practice routine to Iwojima and Miyake Island, 200 km south of Tokyo.
Since then, however, severe volcanic activity on Miyake has led to the
evacuation of the island's population.
The U.S. forces in Japan have voiced concern over the possible transfer
of the exercises to Miyake on the grounds that the drills could be
disturbed by volcanic activity. A drill facility and runway also would
have had to be built on Miyake.
Noise Polluters Aren't Nice
By John Camera / jca...@cnc.com
Thursday, January 30, 2003
Has Massport been lying about how much noise is created by planes flying
over Cohasset?
Selectmen aren't sure, but they are going to extra lengths to find out.
Ralph Dormitzer, a Logan runway opponent, gave an update to the Board of
Selectmen this week and said that no hard data had been turned over from
a town-requested noise monitor on King Street. Moreover, Dormitzer said,
the Massport official who verbally reported the data to him had
continually changed his story.
The monitor was in place for a six-week period during April and May last
year.
Dormitzer said a Massport official told him in late August the monitor
picked up a continuous average noise level of 60 decibels. Later, the
official said the figure was actually 58 decibels, and in late November,
he said it was only 53 decibels.
Selectmen are now going to attempt to acquire a copy of the raw data
from the monitor through the Freedom of Information Act. They are also
looking into setting up their own independent noise study.
The information could potentially be used against Massport to prove
Cohasset and the rest of the South Shore are unfairly bearing the brunt
of plane routes to and from Logan Airport.
"Obviously people are being unfair here," Selectman Michael Sullivan
said to Dormitzer. "Isn't that person that keeps calling you just a
little embarrassed by this? It just seems so obvious."
Dormitzer said recent attempts to reduce the number of flights over
Cohasset have failed. In the past three years, flights have actually
flown over the South Shore more and more, whereas before the patterns
were spread out and shared with Boston and the North Shore.
"They literally have moved flights specifically over Cohasset," he said,
adding that several officials in the control tower seemed to be behind
the changes.
Dormitzer also reported that an FAA-funded study by the Mitre
Corporation found that delays at Logan Airport had been exaggerated by
as much as 10 times. Originally suppressed, the information was obtained
through the Freedom of Information Act, but it was unclear if it would
be admissible in the current Suffolk County trial where Massport is
attempting to lift an injunction that prevents the addition of new
runways at Logan.
Dormitzer said the information could call into question the credibility
of an entire environmental impact report that supported the necessity of
a new runway. He also said that as part of the mitigation for supporting
the new runway, the FAA planned to conduct a noise study to determine
whether flight routes at Logan could be better organized.
"It's a positive sign that at least something may happen from all of
this," he said.
Noise Polluters Aren't Nice
February 05, 2003
Long Beach, CA
JetBlue agrees to yield 5 slots
L.B. Airport: Deal with Alaska, American subject to noise limits, might
increase flights.
By Felix Sanchez, Staff writer
LONG BEACH An agreement to end a dispute over space at Long Beach
Airport calls for JetBlue Airways to give up five of its 27 daily flight
slots so they can be redistributed to competing airlines.
The agreement also sets up yearly noise studies that could result in
more than the current maximum of 41 daily commercial takeoffs and
landings.
But while the proposed agreement already approved by American Airlines,
JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines could result in increased flights,
officials stressed it will not mean more noise than prescribed by the
city's strict noise ordinance.
The City Council will review the proposed agreement during a closed-door
session today and is expected to vote on it during its regularly
scheduled meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. The public will be allowed to
comment.
If approved, the legally binding pact will be forwarded to the Federal
Aviation Administration for signature, said City Attorney Bob Shannon.
Under the agreement, JetBlue will sign over the five slots, which it is
not now using, and the city will allocate three to American Airlines and
two to Alaska Airlines.
If at any time before Jan. 1, 2009, American or Alaska abandons or
cancels the use of any of the flight slots given them as part of the
agreement, they will immediately revert to JetBlue.
Meanwhile, in a key provision that is sure to spark public debate, the
agreement states that once all 41 flight slots are operating the city
will conduct noise studies, to be completed by Oct. 15, to measure
whether they collectively are within the city's noise ordinance.
If the flights don't exceed the noise limits, on Nov. 1 the City Council
will determine what additional "supplemental flights' above and beyond
41 can be added while still maintaining the noise restrictions.
JetBlue would have priority for getting the first few additional slots,
with additional slots ranked in a waiting list that rotates priority
between the three airlines every year over the next five years.
Shannon emphasized that the city will not allow any flights that will
push noise above limits set by the city law.
"The critical point is we are preserving the noise ordinance,' Shannon
said. "This agreement upholds the noise agreement.'
Supplemental flights can be added only if 41 flights are operating, and
only after the once-a-year noise study is done to determine if
additional supplemental flights can be allocated without violating noise
limits.
Those flights are good only for one year and are subject to cancellation
if the noise limits are exceeded.
The controversy over flight slots began in February 2001 when American
Airlines asked for four permanent spots so it could begin nonstop
service to Chicago and New York City. In March, Alaska asked for three
slots of its own for service to Seattle.
But the city rejected the applications, saying all 41 slots in place at
the airport for commercial service were legally assigned, including 27
to JetBlue. American argued that JetBlue was unfairly awarded the slots
and threatened a lawsuit, triggering negotiations between all the
airlines and the city.
In the interim, JetBlue allowed American to temporarily use four of its
slots to begin service until an agreement was reached.
Alaska opted to begin its three flights using regional jet positions
that require smaller planes and passenger loads. The airport has 25 such
positions.
It is unknown if Alaska will use the two reallocated flight slots from
JetBlue for additional service, or move some of the regional jet flights
to the commercial side. JetBlue is now flying 18 daily flights and has
said it will add another destination in weeks.
Shannon said once the FAA signs the agreement it will further strengthen
the city's noise ordinance, making the city and the FAA "partners' in
enforcing its provisions.
Noise Polluters Aren't Nice
Wednesday, February 5
Martin commission may study moving airport
By Jennifer Sorentrue, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
STUART -- Martin County commissioners postponed a noise study Tuesday
that could force mandatory flight restrictions at Witham Field, opting
instead to take a tentative look at possibly moving the airport.
The board ordered county staff to research what a relocation study would
encompass, asking that it look at both relocating and downsizing the
general aviation airport.
Commissioner Lee Weberman said the $100,000 study is the only way to
finally put an end to the relocation debate that is a lingering concern
for residents living near the airport.
"We have to get the mystery out of it," Weberman told the board. "This
is not an endorsement of moving the airport, but I can't talk
intelligently to people unless I can answer questions."
Peter Kirsch, the county's aviation attorney, said the "exploratory"
study will take about three months to complete and can not be paid for
with airport money.
The board will consider starting the relocation study at its Feb. 4
meeting.
Commissioner Doug Smith was the only board member to vote against the
study. He argued that any alternative airport location would be outside
the urban service boundary, and therefore, in violation of the county's
strict growth plan.
Instead, Smith urged the commission to move forward with the noise study
that could prohibit older jets from using the airport.
"Apparently there is still a need in the community for someone to move
an airport, which amazes me," Smith said. "I think it's
counterproductive. This is not protecting the urban service boundary.
This is opening it up to the Browardization of Martin County."
The Naples Municipal Airport is one of the only general-aviation
airports in the nation to complete the noise study. It spent more than
$1 million to pay for the study and to fight legal challenges, Kirsch
said.
Witham Airport Action Majority, a local airport watchdog group, says the
noise study would do little because the older, or Stage 2, jets make up
only about 20 percent of the airport's jet traffic.
WAAM President Lynne Pine called Tuesday's vote an important step,
adding that the relocation study is more beneficial and less costly.
"We didn't get them to go specifically for it, but really and truly it
was a good day for us," Pine said. "We have a county commission that
will at least listen to our point of view and is willing to try to get
the facts."
Commissioners on Tuesday also voted 4-1, with Susan Valliere dissenting,
to create an 11-member noise advisory committee to monitor the airport's
noise abatement program.
The committee will include a WAAM member, a pilot and Sewall's Point and
Stuart officials.
But Valliere said the committee should be made up of residents affected
by jet noise, and not pilots or airport advocates.
"This is a noise advisory committee, let's have it unbalanced in favor
of the people who are affected by the noise," Valliere said.
jennifer_...@pbpost.com
Noise Polluters Aren't Nice
Airport group targets noise
From The Bishops Stortford Citizen
THE Stop Stansted Expansion has set up a Noise Working Group to try and
prove that the Government has "grossly underestimated" how the region
would be affected by airport and air traffic noise if proposals for more
runways at Stansted go ahead.
The move follows concerns that the Government's forecasts for noise are
far lower than the effects currently experienced by a broad swathe of
the regional population across Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk.
The group wants to extract information from the Government about the
basis on which it calculated the numbers and locations of those who
would be affected by Stansted's expansion, as described in the first
round of the consultation.
The group has studied Stansted Airport's flight evaluation unit logs for
between April and September 2002, which detail the public's complaints
about excessively noisy or offtrack flights. They show the forecast
areas of disturbance are much smaller than the actual areas that are
already suffering from noise disturbance.
The group said its checks showed "significant" numbers of complaints
across a 60 x 30 mile area with the airport at its heart, with a core
concentration in the area between Chelmsford and Braintree in the east,
Hertford in the west, and from Haverhill and Saffron Walden in the north
down to Epping and Cheshunt in the south.
Complaints from outside the core area were received from East Bergholt,
in relation to Dedham Vale, as well as Nayland and Roydon, then further
out to the east coast across Constable Country, the group says.
Stop Stansted Expansion chairman Norman Mead said: "When we can see from
the current picture that people are being disturbed so badly already
it's completely unjustifiable to claim that up to three additional
runways and five times as many aircraft movements won't significantly
affect noise levels across the region."
09:35 Saturday 8th February 2003