Community Turns Out for FAA Meeting

by Judy Silberstein

To monitor planes flying over Westchester at this moment, see chart below.

(February 16, 2006) Over 200 people showed up at Murray Avenue School on Thursday, February 9 to hear from Federal Aviation Association representatives explaining the highly technical nature of proposed plans to increase efficiency of air traffic over “most of the nation’s northeastern airspace.” The study space included 31,000 square miles over five states, but community members were focused on the relatively intense amount of air traffic flying over Larchmont and Mamaroneck.

The turnout was considered a success and important in impressing upon the FAA that there is significant local interest in their proposed actions, according to Patty Horing from the Quiet Skies Committee of WRAIN, a group advocating for reducing air traffic noise over Larchmont and Mamaroneck. Congresswoman Nita Lowey opened the proceedings and the audience included Assemblyman George Latimer, Westchester County Legislator Judy Myers, Town of Mamaroneck Supervisor Valerie O’Keeffe and Larchmont Mayor Ken Bialo, among other officials.

Ms. Horing acknowledged that, at this point, the FAA’s plans have very little to do with reducing noise. This was also Mayor Ken Bialo’s assessment. “I don’t think they’re thinking about landing patterns, much less the excessive concentration of low-flying planes over Larchmont and Mamaroneck headed for La Guardia,” said Mayor Ken Bialo, who is looking for assistance from Congresswoman Lowey to redirect the FAA. “Unless we get Nita to expand the scope of what they’re studying and what they’re thinking about, the excessive noise is not going to be what they’re addressing.”

Congresswoman Nita Lowey later issued the following statement: “As the Federal Aviation Administration works to redesign LaGuardia Airport’s flight patterns, it must strongly consider the impact any plan would have on air noise along the Sound Shore.  FAA has already agreed to provide me with additional noise data to better inform us of the noise changes that could result from the proposed changes."  She encouraged local residents to provide comments to the FAA before June 1, 2006. “We must work with the FAA and other government agencies to ensure that consideration of air noise and implementation of state-of-the-art mitigation strategies are priorities throughout this process, so that the quality of life on the Sound Shore is improved with this redesign,” she concluded.

The FAA presentation is part of a required environmental review process that includes publication of thick documents known as a DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement, available online at: FAA DEIS ). The Thursday night presentation, led by Steve Kelly from the FAA, included an introduction and a videotaped overview in the auditorium, after which the audience was asked to decamp to separate rooms where they could peruse large charts and ask detailed questions of FAA representatives before reassembling in the auditorium for further questions.

The presentation covered “four potential plans to improve safety, reduce delays and handle growing air traffic in most of the nation’s northeastern airspace,” according to the FAA. Noise abatement was not part of the study focus, although noise is one of the environmental impacts and reducing noise over New Jersey was the chief reason for including the option for routing Newark flights over the Atlantic Ocean. .

The four choices were: future no action, modification to existing airspace, ocean routing airspace, and integrated airspace. At this point, the FAA has not designated a preferred choice, but has said: “ The FAA will address strategies to reduce the environmental impact of the preferred alternative, once it is identified.”

According to Ms. Horing. “The worst for us would be the 'do nothing' option in which traffic continues to build on the same routes over Larchmont and Mamaroneck. The present system does consider the preferred route to be over the Long Island Sound, but planes are regularly rerouted over nearby communities under many weather conditions.

“The FAA said the objective is to get more planes in the air and have them fly more efficiently with less delay,” said Ms. Horing. “They were very candid; they seemed to want to help us, but noise abatement is not their primary or secondary goal,” she said.

“People were struck by how detailed and complex the technical aspects were,” added Ms. Horing. “This reinforced our belief that we need our own consultant – an aviation expert – to help us develop our own point of view,” she said. WRAIN has identified the consultant, George D. Willliams and his firm, Williams Aviation Consultants, Inc. Mr. Williams was an aviation engineer with the FAA for approximately 30 years and works only for citizen groups or municipalities concerned with air plane routing and noise abatement, and not for the airports, according to Ms. Horing. Quiet Skies aims to raise around $100,000, with $15,000 contributions from each municipality and the rest from fundraising. The Quiet Skies leadership has already raised around $12,000 on their own and will be expanding their efforts in the near future.

Those interested in making a contribution to the Quiet Skies initiative are advised to send a check made out to "WRAIN/QFC" to the following address: WRAIN/QFC, c/o 74 Magnolia Avenue, Larchmont NY 10538.