Dear Friends,
The Federal Aviation Administration is undergoing a Noise Policy Review. The FAA’s Noise Policy is how the agency complies with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), of which a key step involves intergovernmental coordination. Following is a Sky Posse Special Report on the role of local officials in FAA's NEPA practices to consider environmental impacts, and more updates.
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Special Report: The Role of Local Officials in FAA’s NEPA Practices
- City of Palo Alto Letter to SFO
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The UC Davis Noise and Emissions Symposium/ Presentation by Palo Alto resident Darlene Yaplee
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Noise Policy Review/The Federal Mediation Conciliation Service
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The Government Accountability Office recommendations to FAA
Special Report: The Role of Local Officials in FAA’s NEPA Practices
Numerous scientific studies and the FAA’s own studies show that jet noise is more intrusive than other transportation noise and that millions more people are affected by aviation noise and air pollutants than what the FAA discloses to Congress. These impacts are going unaddressed largely because of the FAA’s permissive NEPA thresholds of noise significance but also because of non-transparent practices when the agency decides what level of NEPA review to conduct before implementing actions, and where local officials have a role. Without fair FAA NEPA practices, there is no noise oversight or proactive mitigation efforts which just permits more noise and pollution
Please see our special report,The Role of Local Officials in FAA’s NEPA Practices that looks at the levels of NEPA reviews that the agency can choose to do (or avoids doing) and the intergovernmental coordination involved. We welcome feedback to refine this report with any comments or new information.
City of Palo Alto letter to SFO
The City of Palo Alto is asking SFO to address some key issues regarding SFO’s GBAS “Innovative Approaches” (IA’s). In this letter, with a copy to the FAA, the City states that “SFO’s submittal of the GBAS IAs to the IFP Gateway without obtaining Palo Alto’s input is problematic given the expectation to demonstrate community support during the FAA review.” The City’s leadership to ensure that SFO’s GBAS project achieves noise reduction is much appreciated.
The 2022 UC Davis Noise and Emissions Symposium
We were also very pleased that FAA’s Sean Doyle was able to participate in the Sunday small group session for a general Q&A about FAA noise and emissions policies. Community members raised several topics (see list here) and asked how community voices will be considered in the FAA’s Noise Policy Review.
Noise Policy Review and the FMCS
During the Sunday session at the Symposium we learned that the agency has embarked on the Noise Policy Review, and that the FMCS is supporting the FAA; however, there are still no details about how local communities will be involved per the FAA’s commitment a year ago in the agency’s letter to Congress about next steps, following the release of NES study:
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“We are bringing on board the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) to assist with designing an inclusive and participatory policy review framework and process that prioritizes input from substantially affected stakeholders, including local communities”
US aviation Noise policy has not changed in nearly 50 years; it has been a decade since the FAA has witnessed national public outcry about the flaws in policy, six years since the agency had the results of the NES study to initiate a policy review, and one year since committing to prioritize “affected stakeholders, including local communities.” We will report any news but at the same time we will need our members of Congress to get more answers on how the FAA will include affected stakeholders in the FAA Noise Policy Review.
General Accountability Office Recommendations to FAA
The FAA responded to GAO in March. However, we have learned that the FAA’s “detailed response” to GAO is not being made public. The GAO report webpage refers to the FAA’s Noise Policy Review and states that “the FAA plans to complete this review by the end of 2022.” A screenshot of GAO’s timeline tracker is here.
