Sep 14, 2007
AIRPLANES OVERHEAD:
Will town fight new routing?
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Town and cities in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey are gearing up to mount a legal challenge to the Federal Aviation Administration decision to adopt a controversial redesign of the airspace over the Northeast.
First Selectman Rudy Marconi said he would likely join a growing list of communities that planned to sue the FAA to stop the redesign.
“I’m going to ask the Board of Selectmen to support any action we can take,” he said. “Chris Shays has done everything humanly possible to stop this thing, but in typical fashion the FAA ignored the people and went ahead and did what it wanted.”
Fourth District Congressman Christopher Shays attempted to put an amendment on the House transportation bill denying funding to the FAA if it adopted its Integrated Airspace Alternative, but the House defeated the measure on the floor. He said the FAA failed to account for increased noise from more aircraft flying lower under the plan, which affects the quality of life of state residents.
“After safety, quality of life should be a primary factor in any airspace redesign, but the FAA has no mandate to consider the impact of air noise on quality of life and does not plan to do so,” he said.
Mr. Shays said since his virtually solo effort in the House failed, “we need a bipartisan approach. If it’s just one congressman or one senator, it’s an uphill battle to be sure.”
U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and New Jersey Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez might be able to garner that support. The New Jersey lawmakers derided the FAA decision, while Senator Dodd vowed to fight the redesign when the Senate takes up its version of the transportation spending bill.
At the same time, the city of Elizabeth, N.J., filed suit in Union County, N.J., on Sept. 5 to stop the redesign, moments after the FAA announced its plan.
In Connecticut, officials from Wilton, New Canaan, Stamford, Greenwich, and Darien are looking into filing suit to stop the plan, along with Ridgefield.
“We never got a fair public hearing,” Mr. Marconi said. “There was no allowance for decreased ceilings on planes flying out of Danbury. It’s always been a quality of life issue and the FAA doesn’t care about quality of life.”
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he also plans to sue to stop the redesign.
Rockland County (N.Y.) Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef has hired a law firm to aid in a possible suit as well.
The plan
The FAA plan includes Philadelphia International Airport, Newark and Teterboro airports in New Jersey and LaGuardia, Kennedy and Westchester County airports in New York. The hallmark of the plan is the rerouting and retiming of flights.
According to the FAA, the plan “would combine high-altitude and low-altitude airspace to create more efficient arrival and departure routes.”
In addition to the flight paths, the Integrated Airspace Alternative allows for a doubling of air traffic by 2011 as well as a reduction in the distance between aircraft from five nautical miles to three. The FAA admits this would create more aircraft over towns like Ridgefield for longer intervals, although it also says it is the best way to accommodate the anticipated increase in traffic.
The new air traffic pattern would also allow commercial jets to come in lower on approach than the FAA currently permits. The current ceiling is 10,000 feet to 15,000 feet. The Integrated Airspace Alternative lowers that to 6,000 feet to 8,000 feet.
The FAA says the lower ceilings permit quicker approaches and landings, allowing airports to handle more aircraft.
Arrivals, departures
The FAA argument that the new plan would have only a minimal impact on Connecticut and surrounding states fell on deaf ears among elected officials.
Mr. Blumenthal said the FAA, when it adopted the Integrated Airspace Alternative, “ignored its clear legal obligation to consider feasible alternatives that would reduce air traffic delays with far less damage to natural resources and quality of life. Arrogantly and improperly, the FAA has disregarded its duty to listen — refusing to hold sufficient hearings for views and voices of citizens to be heard.”
Stamford Director of Economic Development Mike Freimuth said that city would likely join in any lawsuit to halt the redesign. The new airspace would have a dramatic impact on Stamford in terms of aircraft flying overhead, although Mr. Freimuth admitted “a lot of people might not notice because of all the other background noise in the city.”
FAA spokesman Jim Peters said Ridgefield and towns south could see an increase of up to 40 aircraft per day flying overhead, heading toward Runway 34 at LaGuardia. He said the aircraft would fly over town at altitudes no higher than 8,000 feet.
“If you look at the current situation, departures out of White Plains and flights into or out of New England are vectored over Middlesex, New Haven and Fairfield counties. It’s not as if there are no aircraft there today.”
FAA-released maps of the new airspace show departures from Kennedy and LaGuardia airports would increase over Fairfield County, especially over portions of Greenwich, New Canaan, Wilton, Darien, and Stamford. The same flights would impact sections of Ridgefield along the New York state border.
Departure flights from Kennedy already fly over town, as do departures from Teterboro. Those flight paths remain unchanged in the new airspace. The biggest change is in departures from LaGuardia, which now would essentially fly directly over the Connecticut shoreline. Arrivals from the northwest would loop around and fly right over Route 7 through Danbury, Ridgefield, Redding, Wilton, and Norwalk before heading west over Long Island Sound.
No data
Although it would dramatically increase the number of flights overhead, the FAA said noise from that traffic would have “no impact” on the area. Mr. Peters, however, could not offer specific noise data on Ridgefield or the rest of Fairfield County.
“We don’t do analysis by state,” he said. “We look at impacts over specific communities. The preferred alternative with mitigation does not create any new noise impacts that rise within three thresholds.”
The FAA collected noise from one location in Connecticut in Stamford.
Despite a lack of evidence, the FAA classified downtown Ridgefield as having a noise level equivalent to a “whisper in a library.”
“I’m not going to offer an opinion on the language in the report,” Mr. Peters said. “We hire an outside consultant and if that’s the language they use, we’re not going to dispute it.”
The FAA may not dispute it, but others are, including Senator Dodd.
“The FAA has ignored repeated requests from me and my colleagues for information about how their proposed changes to regional flight patterns would impact the people of our state, and their decision demonstrates an utter disregard for the quality of life of residents of Connecticut who will be affected by the Integrated Airspace Alternative,” Senator Dodd said in statement. “I will continue to work to oppose this proposal.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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