Public Forum on Aircraft Noise

10 August 2000

Hosted by Boulder County at the

Clerk and Recorder’s Office

1750 33rd Street, Boulder, Colorado

Moderator: Boulder County Commissioner Jana Mendez

Officials present:

Mike McKee

Noise Abatement Officer, DIA

Don Kirby

Acting Air Traffic Manager, Denver TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control)

Bob Super

JeffCo FAA Air Traffic Manager

Marty Berry

Denver TRACON Support Manager

Jim Fels

Denver Airports District Office Colorado State Planner

Mark Udall

U.S. Congressman (D-Dist. 2)

Kristine Pollard

Area Representative for Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.)

Jeff Price

JeffCo Airport Manager

Ray Grundy

Boulder Municipal Airport Manager

Tim Barth

Vance Brand Airport Manager

Attendance: approximately 115

Agenda:

Welcome by Boulder County Commissioner Jana Mendez

Updates and comments from:

Mike McKee —

The issue of aircraft noise has been one he and his office has been working on for the past 10 years, since Stapleton Airport was still in operation. The issues have a variety of components.

Officials attempted to address the issue by forming the Aircraft Noise Task Force in 1995 that coincided with the opening of DIA in February of that year.

He has heard lately, in the last few months, an increasing number of complaints from a variety of municipalities like Thornton, Broomfield, Northglenn and Boulder.

"In very few cases are there simple solutions," McKee said. "It is a complex issue."

There have been changes in the last few months, and in the last year, McKee said. In the past, the older, noisier aircraft (stage 2) had been rerouted to the north and south after takeoffs and prior to landing. This resulted in a 50 percent reduction in complaints in communities to the west of DIA.

However, the older Stage 2 aircraft were subsequently fitted with "hush" kits — which still does not make them as quiet as newer aircraft. By getting the new hush kits, the older planes were classified as Stage 3, but they still were not as quiet as the newer planes. As a result, the older, noisier planes were allowed to again fly over the western part of Boulder County and that, according to McKee, is the reason for the increase in complaints.

Don Kirby —

Kirby provided an overview of the TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach CONtrol) operations. He said the commercial aircraft flying into Denver generally enter the Front Range’s airspace at between 17,000 and 19,000 feet on eight arrival routes.

Those aircraft can land in four directions at DIA and the runways are assigned depending on conditions such as wind, traffic and other operational situations.

As for departures, Kirby said there are four general routes and aircraft are kept below the arriving flights until they can safely climb to altitude.

Congressman Udall —

The congressman explained how his predecessor, David Skaggs, was successful in getting a provision added to the 1999 appropriations bill for a study to be done gauging aircraft noise rates and levels, especially in the mountains. To date, that study has not been completed.

In the 2001 appropriations report, Congressman Udall attached a rider to get a date certain for the study. He said the reason for the study was to show that the allowable noise standards being used by the FAA did not take into account mountain terrain. A system needs to be developed, Udall said, that takes into account the mountain terrain.

He also co-sponsored the Silent Skies Act.

The "hush" kits installed in the past five years on older planes to make them quieter are "a poor substitute" for newer engines and only reduce the noise by a fraction, Udall said.

He added that the airlines have stopped flying routes that avoid population centers in the mountains because the engines with hush kits are now "in compliance" and the old routes to the north and south are deemed no longer necessary by the airlines.

Norman Letterman, audio engineer who also studies the health effects of noise pollution —

The aviation industry is the largest industrial polluter on earth.

A promise to Boulder County and its residents in a 1989 Environmental Impact Study (EIS) said there would be lesser noise at DIA has been broken.

Regarding the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area, Letterman said that DIA violates the wilderness pact for such areas by flying over them. Such areas are not protected by current noise regulations because the aircraft noise is averaged over time, instead of being taken as a single event.

Planned or expected expansions at DIA do not mention the environmental impacts from the added noise that would be generated by an expansion.

FAA polices itself and Congress repeatedly rejects and legislation that would regulate noise pollution.

Mr. Letterman also asked four questions of Congressman Udall. They were:

1) Will you work toward eliminating the FAA’s conflict of interest by developing and/or supporting legislation that places the design of new humane noise regulations, and the monitoring and control of all aviation environmental impacts, under the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency or other unbiased organization that places the health and well being of our planet ahead of commerce?

2) Will you enforce existing federal proclamations such as the FAA’s 1989 Environmental Impact Statement (re: DIA’s impact on Boulder County) and the Wilderness Act of 1964 that make promises that local governments and their citizens can trust and rely on?

3) Will you request and extension of the FAA’s deadline for comments on their proposed Noise Abatement Policy 2000 in order to give yourself, citizens and other interested parties time to study the document and respond? And do you have science advisors who can review this document in the hope of compelling further discussions concerning the efficacy of the FAA’s proposed noise measurement procedures as they impact your district?

4) Will you support a moratorium on all airport expansions in Colorado until such time as adequate, impartial and enforceable environmental impact studies can be performed that appraise environmental, health and safety impacts?

Jim Miller, mayor of Nederland, Colorado —

The former Noise Abatement Task Force did help move noisy planes to the north.

"My community has been deluged with noise and thousands of noise complaints have been registered.

"The term ‘hush’ kit is a misnomer or an outright lie. Planes are just as bad and noisy as they were before.

"Our community is tired of this and the empty promises."

If there is not movement on the problem, then litigation against the FAA and airlines and airports may be the only way to proceed and get the attention of those who can solve this problem.

About 40 Boulder County residents took the opportunity to speak at the forum. They represented areas throughout the county — from the mountains to the plains to the cities. And their complaints were not just about commercial jet traffic and their noise. Some also complained about civil aircraft including private jets and small, single-engine planes.

The following is a summary of the substance of those complaints and statements.

Airlines’ true intent is to maximize their profits at any cost. They have a total disregard for the quality of life of the people who live and play under their flight paths. The noise from the jets adversely impacts the wilderness areas.

Rock Creek residents complained about the noise and increased jet traffic. Prompting a question about the capacity of the JeffCo Airport. To which Jeff Price responded: The maximum capacity for the airport could go as high as 350,000 annually, but it is unlikely that you will ever see anything approaching that kind of traffic in the near future. He bluntly stated that the airport does not measure noise on the premises. And over the past five years, the aircraft flying in and out of JeffCo have been getting larger, but none exceed the 7,000 pound weight limit, he said.

Bob Super added that the traffic patterns have not changed.

Residents in and around Longmont also complained that they are having problems with private pilots flying low and noisily over the community. Residents say some pilots are deviating from the airport’s flight pattern.

Another resident called the aircraft noise issue "exasperating and frustrating" and called for making aviation noise a crime. He felt that FAA officials should remove the source of the noise, not just move it somewhere else. He also called for regulation of Single Event Noise Levels.

A Louisville resident echoed this sentiment saying that moving the flight patterns is not going to solve the problem. She called for putting money into technology to make planes quieter and a return to the practice abandoned decades ago of putting the identifying numbers in large block print on the underside of the aircraft for easier identification.

And yet another Longmont resident complained that the cities of Boulder and Longmont are subsidizing a public nuisance by supporting the local airports. He felt that aircraft should be considered industrial noise pollution in local ordinances and regulated as such.

A Magnolia Road resident decried the loss of the rural way of life due to the aircraft noise and asked Congressman Udall if he would consider reallocating subsidies that support the airlines.

Another Magnolia area resident noted that in addition to noise, jet aircraft are directly responsible for exhaust emissions deposited in the earth’s upper atmosphere. CO2 emissions by jet aircraft could have two to four times the effect on our atmosphere as surface emissions. These emissions and jet contrails, she said, increase the incidence of cirrus clouds which, in turn, contribute to global warming.

A representative of PUMA (Preserve Unique Magnolia Association) made four points.

1) People are willing to take responsibility and they are expecting no impacts

2) People are willing to pay more to minimize health impacts from aircraft noise

3)     People are willing to contribute time and expertise to address these problems and get involved.

4) The public participation process needs to be improved.

A foothills resident’s complaint was echoed by two others that live in or near Boulder that noise from glider tow planes flying overhead is constant.

Another mountain resident called for the creation of quiet zones that would be free from mechanical sound and would ban jets and propeller planes from flying over these places.

In terms of Denver International Airport, one person complained that the airport officials are unresponsive to the citizenry and fail to send follow-up calls or emails responding to complaints or questions.

Another resident, speaking of the hush kits, wanted to know what plan, if any, was in place to have the Stage 2 planes made quieter, upgraded or eliminated altogether.

A western Boulder County man said he felt the FAA needed to respond to the aircraft noise problem with the same swiftness, urgency and attention as it does aircraft crashes. "They need to put the same effort into solving the noise problems that they do into solving the cause of plane crashes," he said.

In closing, each of the officials present offered their thoughts and answers to the comments and questions posed.

Mike McKee clarified the statement quoted by several speakers that there would be "no greater impact" from aircraft at DIA over those from the old Stapleton Airport. "What I meant was that the flight paths from Stapleton and DIA would not be significantly different," McKee said. "Aircraft have gone back to the old routes that they flew at the beginning of 1996." He added that he was trying to work with the airlines cooperatively to find a solution to this problem and called it "our highest priority."

Don Kirby addressed the issue of weather and how it applies to aircraft noise. He said that planes will use different runways at DIA depending on the presence of storms in the area, wind and other factors. When weather permits, they try to use the north/south routes.

And Congressman Udall closed the public forum saying he learned a lot listening to the people who came to speak. As for the four questions put to him by Mr. Letterman, he pledged to sign on to a letter encouraging the FAA to allow additional time for comments on its revised regulations. He added that he was hired to be thoughtful on these issues and offered to sit down with residents to look at the other questions and find out if that was the way to approach solving those problems or look and see if there were other ways to go about it.

He pointed out that the forum only solidified his support of the Silent Skies Act and acknowledged that although many people say they are tired of studies on the issue, he felt that doing a study on aircraft noise in the mountain environment gives those residents with concerns more credibility and him more leverage with his fellow lawmakers. He noted that Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C. has limitations on when planes can and cannot fly in and out of it, why not at Jefferson County Airport?

He also acknowledged that if the Environmental Impact Statement of DIA is not being complied with, there may be some additional work that can be done there as well.

In closing, he agreed with an earlier comment that technology will likely play a part in solving the problem of aircraft noise. He added that it is an appropriate role for the Federal Government to play to push development of new technologies that will address this problem.