Coinciding with Lawsuit, House Discusses Aviation Noise
FAA
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
10/24/2007
WASHINGTON—A congressional committee has tackled a subject that has southwestern Connecticut towns, including Norwalk, up in arms: aviation noise.
On Tuesday, the town of Norwalk, led by Mayor Richard Moccia, joined in a multi-town lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration. This comes almost two months after the agency announced its Integrated Airspace Alternative, a design plan intended to reroute aircraft from the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia airports over southwestern Connecticut towns, including Norwalk. Community members have expressed concern about noise pollution.
“I’ve been receiving complaints from residents about increased noise,” Michael Coffey, president of Norwalk’s Common Council, said in an interview. “We are attempting to be a part of this to see if there can be a solution.”
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Aviation subcommittee heard testimony Wednesday from aviation and noise pollution experts on the issue. Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), the chairman of the subcommittee, said: “The purpose of the hearing is to learn more about these issues … what communities have done and what they are doing to address the problem. [Airports] must reach a balance between the need to expand with the quality of life of the people who live near and around our airports.”
Although some testified at the hearing that noise is a “significant” problem, several witnesses at the hearing spoke of the gains that have been made in aviation over the years.
Carl Burleson, director of the federal agency’s office of environment and energy, said the agency has offered noise-abatement air traffic procedures and grants to help reduce noise. He also discussed the agency’s strategy of soundproofing schools and hospitals to reduce the impact of noise.
For Burleson, technology is one of the main factors in noise reduction.
“Advances in technology must play a crucial role if we are to repeat our successful past 30-year effort at reducing noise while growing the aviation system,” he said. “We are identifying technology gaps and targets we will need to address to meet the noise challenges in the years ahead.”
Alan Epstein, vice president of technology and environment for the East Hartford technology company Pratt and Whitney, testified that the company has created a new “geared turbofan” engine, designed to generate a very low level of noise for passenger aircraft. Epstein promised the new engine would be in service as early as 2012, and would create less noise not only in and around airports but also in flight.
“The less noise, the less concerned you are about where it goes,” he said, referring to the new flight plans over Norwalk.
Coffey, however, said he was less than confident.
“If there was a plane that was totally silent, and residents were safe, I hope it would be part of the solution,” he said. On the other hand, he said, “the population is growing, the density is growing…. The biggest part of the problem is the noise problem.”
Mayor Moccia agreed.
“It’s not as if people bought houses near airports,” he said in an interview. “It’s a quality-of-life issue.”
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