By Khalida Sarwari
In response to complaints from citizens about increased aircraft noise, the FAA has rolled out a three-step procedure to mitigate the issue and has plans to follow up with community meetings to explain how the agency will address the noise problems.
The FAA response comes in the form of a report authored at the urging of Rep. Anna Eshoo, who represents Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Lexington Hills, and Congress members Sam Farr and Jackie Speier. The congressional leaders have been gathering input from the public at round table events and community meetings throughout the year.
While cautioning that not all of the ideas were deemed “workable” by the FAA, Speier noted that “having previously been resistant to taking community suggestions, the FAA, for the first time in many years, has committed to studying ideas submitted by the affected communities.”
Most of the complaints started after the FAA launched a nationwide plan in March to change flight routes, including at San Francisco International Airport. Dubbed NextGen, short for Next Generation Air Transportation System, the plan was aimed at reducing air traffic congestion by directing flights to approach airports along a fixed, narrow “superhighway” that leads them above many mid-Peninsula and South Bay cities at altitudes below 5,000 feet. But because the corridors are close to, or directly over, cities such as Santa Cruz and Saratoga, they are responsible for a significant increase in noise, resulting in thousands of unhappy residents.
According to the SFO noise abatement office, Saratoga went from reporting no complaints last year to 20 by this summer, while Los Gatos went up from three to 5,448, although those complaints came from just 167 individuals.
Many of these residents voiced their concerns to their representatives or the FAA directly and demanded that the NextGen program be put on hold. Farr said the FAA initiative shows the agency is willing to at least consider the changes proposed by residents.
“From the beginning, I have told the FAA that they created this mess so it is up to them to fix it,” he said. “This is only a first step, but it’s a good one. It shows everyone is committed to developing some real solutions.”
The modifications will be implemented in three phases. During the first phase, the FAA plans to conduct an analysis and feasibility study on factors such as flight procedures, airspace changes and the possibility of moving existing waypoints, as well as an assessment of impacts to operations at surrounding airports.
During the second phase, the FAA will take all of the data gathered in the first phase to make possible modifications and collect feedback from affected communities and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
The final step will see FAA controllers and operators being trained on any operational or procedural changes.
The FAA initiative can be viewed in its entirety at bit.ly/bayareaairtrafficnoise.
Link: FAA rolls out 3-step procedure to deal with aircraft noise
