Ridgefield Press
AIRCRAFT NOISE: GAO will probe FAA airspace plan

Nov 8, 2007

The Government Accountability Office today agreed to investigate a proposed Federal Aviation Administration redesign of the airspace over the tri-state area.

The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.

U.S. Rep Christopher Shays, R-4th Dist., lobbied the House of Representatives to authorize the investigation after the FAA refused to account for quality of life issues the redesign could affect.

Mr. Shays joined forces with New Jersey Democrats Rodney Frelinghuysen and Scott Garrett and Elliot Engel to require the GAO to do a study on market-based measures that could reduce flight delays. The lawmakers specifically require the GAO to conduct a cost and benefit analysis between the market-based measures and redesigning the airspace.

“It's good news to Fairfield County and the state of Connecticut,” said Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi. “We're pleased with Congressman Shays and his ongoing efforts.”

Ridgefield is part of the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning — ASAP — along with Darien, Wilton, New Canaan, Wilton and Norwalk. The alliance sued the FAA to stop the redesign, as did Rockland County, N.Y., and several New Jersey communities.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell called the GAO review of the plan “encouraging.”

“We have made it clear that we are in this fight to win,” Gov. Rell said in a statement this afternoon. “Under the FAA's plan, more planes — as many as 150 more per day — would be flying lower and bringing noise pollution and other ill-effects to Fairfield County. We can and we will save our air space.”

The Shays-sponsored review mandates the GAO to examine  key elements  (including estimated impacts), timeframes, and direct costs of the FAA's airspace redesign project for the region, whether the FAA followed applicable procedures and requirements for the airspace redesign, including the associated environmental impact statement the strengths and limitations in the methodology used by FAA to assess the key operational and environmental impacts associated with its airspace redesign.”

Mr. Marconi said examining the methodology the GAA used is arguably the most important part of the GAO review.

“We need to be sure the process is fair,” he said. “This is much the same issue as the Schaghticoke recognition. During that process, the BIA system broke down. It's same breakdown of the system we're seeing with the FAA.”

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation initially won federal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2005. An appeal overturned that decision later that year.

“Our fight is about many things, but chief among them is the process itself,” Gov. Rell said. “The FAA failed to even consider or analyze the impact of increased noise on residents and state parks before moving forward with new flight paths. More planes, expanded holding patterns, lower altitudes. It is unacceptable, and we can defeat this plan.”


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