On December 2, Representatives Eshoo, Farr and Speier sent to the FAA Administrator a letter enclosing the Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals’ final report approved on November 17, along with the report from the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable also issued November 17. Key points in the letter are that the Representatives:
Click here for the letter to the FAA.
The letter also cites the Committee’s recommendation that a successor organization be formed to be made up of local elected officials from the members’ three Congressional Districts. The Representatives state that they “will work with [their] incoming colleagues in the next Congress to determine how best to move forward with that recommendation.”
We very much hope and expect that Palo Alto - which is experiencing the highest number of overflights and is most impacted by SFO arrivals - must have a seat at the table of the successor organization.
The Committee and Roundtable reports contain a multitude of proposed solutions to mitigate aircraft noise over the three affected districts. As Supervisor Joe Simitian noted in his transmittal letter, "the Committee did not make any effort to “rank order" or prioritize [their] Recommendations," and nor apparently did the Roundtable. However, we believe the FAA should give high priority to Section 2.5, recommendation 5, of the Committee report pertaining to the assessment of one or more alternate waypoints for southern arrivals into SFO. These alternatives would not simply move noise, but would minimize noise and emissions to the underlying populations and offer the best option for meaningful relief to the region.
In addition, both reports address the problem of low-altitude night flights. We believe this should also be a high priority area for the FAA as well.
Click here for the Final Report of the Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals (including Supervisor Simitian’s transmittal letter) and click here for the report of the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable.
