Apr 17, 2008
Fed no-show at Greenwich meeting fuels fight against FAA
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The Federal Aviation Administration’s lack of presence at Monday night’s community forum at Town Hall fueled an already blazing fire under lawmakers representing the region, who vowed to stand together and continue their fight against the agency’s proposed airspace redesign, which shifts airplane traffic over Fairfield County.
Many, including Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, cited last week’s defeat by the New York State Department of State of the Broadwater Energy liquefied natural gas project as proof that a united front can work when fighting the federal government for a cause.
Broadwater had planned to put a liquefied natural gas terminal in Long Island Sound in New York waters, east of the Iroquois pipeline. While approved, with conditions, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the project failed to show New York officials that it is consistent with the state’s coastal zone policies.
Mr. Blumenthal said the Broadwater fight, like the fight against the FAA, started with few participants and increased in size. He added the two causes are analogous in that each situation has better alternatives not being considered and each plan has shown “inadequate consideration of environmental impact.”
The redesign, according to FAA reports, is expected to reduce delays, fuel consumption, aircraft emissions, and noise. However, some opponents say with the change in flight patterns, noise will actually increase in their neighborhoods.
Ellen Ivens, an environmental scientist with Anderson Mulholland & Associates, said Monday there are “significant health issues that need to be raised,” and that sound could be doubled in Fairfield County.
That concern was echoed by one resident, a representative of the Hearing Loss Association of America, who said for people with hearing aids, noise heard by others is amplified significantly by the device, making any airplane noise increase hard to handle.
Robert Sturgell, acting administrator for the FAA, had been invited to Monday’s forum, sponsored by the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning, but didn’t respond, according to New Canaan former First Selectwoman Judy Neville, chief operating officer of the group.
The alliance, which formed last year in opposition to the FAA’s plan because, its members say, it will increase air traffic and amplify noise pollution in the area, comprises political leaders from local towns and cities, including First Selectman Peter Tesei of Greenwich and town leaders as far as Norwalk and Danbury.
The purpose of Monday’s forum was to allow an open discussion of the issue at hand: a plan to change flight patterns in the New York-New Jersey-Philadephia region. The plan is scheduled to take effect in January 2009.
“The FAA says it is implementing the new flight plan to ease air traffic congestion at New York area airports — a plan that will cause hundreds of additional flights flying low over Fairfield County, thereby increasing both pollution and noise,” a press release about Monday’s event said.
One resident questioned the alliance’s reach to the public, saying the general population needs more knowledge.
Educating the public is part of the alliance’s three-pronged approach to fighting the FAA. Filing a lawsuit against the federal agency and lobbying state and federal legislators to help it are other parts of the alliance’s plan.
“This is a knock-down, drag-out fight,” said U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays of District 4, which includes Greenwich. He said he supports it 100%. “We need to deal with this on all fronts.”
Mr. Shays suggested starting watch groups in affected towns to tally information about flights flying overhead, at what times and how low, so that the data can be compiled and relayed to the FAA in exchange for answers.
“Whatever we see now, it’s only going to get worse,” he said, emphasizing that the redesign is not yet in place.
Mr. Shays also suggested considering congestion pricing for airlines, in the hope of lessening heavy air traffic during peak times.
For future requests, he said, the alliance and those in Washington, D.C., will have to better coordinate, as he and his colleagues are not part of a lawsuit and have the right to receive information from a federal agency.
Since FAA officials approved the regional airspace redesign last September, the alliance and the state of Connecticut have filed suit to stop implementation of the plan. Officials in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have also sued. A resolution urging the FAA to reconsider its plan, introduced by state Sen. Robert Duff of Norwalk, is currently awaiting consideration by the Connecticut General Assembly.
The Government Accountability Office is also examining the FAA’s redesign, and will release a report investigating the plan’s environmental impacts and determining whether the agency followed appropriate procedures. The report is due by July 31, Mr. Shays said.
“The redesign will require aircraft to fly longer distances, producing air noise and fuel burn impact. There is nothing to suggest that the redesign will reduce delays,” said Former First Selectwoman Neville.
She added that the alliance has filed five requests for information from the FAA through the Freedom of Information Act, and the only response has been a notice of when plan implementation will begin.
Mr. Shays agreed that the agency’s lack of communication is not exclusive to citizens.
“The FAA, the way they treat the general public, trust me, is the way they treat the members of Congress,” he said. “The company culture of the FAA is simply to not respond in any way to the public via its elected officials.
“We need the FAA to have an obligation to care about quality of life issues and an obligation to listen to the general public.”
For more information, visit Sensibleairspace.org. Information about the redesign is available at Faa.gov.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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