Airport Noise

AIRPLANE NOISE IMPACT ON OUR COMMUNITIES

Airplane noise has become an ever-increasing concern in our communities. In the fall of 2014, the FAA began implementation of NextGen RNAV flight procedures in the Bay Area. NextGen Performance Based Navigation is part of a nation-wide FAA modernization program which includes new technologies using precise satellite navigation in place of the aging ground-based radio beacon navigation system.

This new technology is lauded because of its ability to design more efficient straight-line flight paths which reduce flight time, fuel and emissions. But NextGen RNAV procedures are not necessarily a good thing for residents living below. Because of the precision of satellite navigation, airplanes fly a concentrated, repeatable narrow path over the earth; many residents are subjected to an incessant barrage of flights overhead.

In addition, long standing flight paths based on ground based navigation aids were often eliminated and replaced by new NextGen procedures which shifted noise to new areas. As the installation of NextGen routes expanded to new areas through 2015, more and more communities were impacted.

In response to the noise impact of these new NextGen procedures, Congresswoman Speier, along with two of her Bay Area colleagues Anna Eshoo and Sam Farr, met with FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in the spring of 2015 in Washington, DC to explain in no uncertain terms that more and more residents were being subjected to intolerable NextGen noise…and the FAA needed to fix it.

FAA’S RESPONSE TO CONGRESSIONAL INQURIES

As part of the FAA Administrator’s response to these Congressional complaints, FAA Western-Pacific Regional Administrator Glen Martin appeared at Congresswoman Speier’s August 2015 meeting of elected and community leaders. At this meeting, Mr. Martin heard how families could not sleep through the night, how conversations would be disrupted throughout the day and that the noise was unrelenting. These community leaders also shared suggestions to improve flight procedures to reduce the noise impact.

FAA INITIATIVE REPORT AND PROCESS

In response to Congresswoman Speier’s initial inquires and the forthright community comments to the FAA at her meeting as well as additional input, the FAA compiled the FAA Initiative to Address Noise Concerns of Santa Cruz/Santa Clara/San Mateo/San Francisco Counties: Compiled at the Request of Representatives Farr, Eshoo and Speier. This FAA Initiative, presented to these three Members of Congress in November 2015, listed a number of suggested changes to flight procedures. Since that time, the FAA has been evaluating those items using the FAA’s seven step process:

1. Detailed Analysis
2. Fly-ability Assessment
3. Operational Assessment
4. Feasibility Determination
5. Stakeholder Feedback
6. Environmental Review
7. Safety Assessment

THE FAA INITIATIVE FEASIBILITY STUDY

The first four steps of this process have been completed for each item in the FAA Initiative. The FAA has released the updated FAA Initiative to Address Noise Concerns of Santa Cruz/Santa Clara/San Mateo/San Francisco Counties Feasibility Study. In this update, if a listed item in the FAA Initiative is deemed by the FAA to be “not feasible”, it will not be further considered as part of this FAA Initiative process. If the FAA concludes that an item is feasible, that proposed feasible item will be submitted for community review, comment and recommendation.

The Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals (SCSBA) is a newly constituted committee with twelve members appointed by Representatives Speier, Eshoo and Farr. The Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals (SCSBA) will focus on those feasible FAA Initiative items relating to SFO flight arrivals which primarily affect the South Bay.

The SFO Airport/Community Roundtable (SFO RT) is a long-standing SFO noise abatement public forum. The SFO Airport/Community Roundtable will focus on those feasible FAA Initiative items involving SFO departures as well as SFO arrivals which primarily affect the cities and counties which comprise the SFO RT geographical area—the City and County of San Francisco and County and Cities of San Mateo County.

Each of these forums continues to hold hearings on the feasible FAA Initiative items to study options and will ultimately vote to approve or disapprove each of the FAA Initiative items.

Listed below are dates for the upcoming meetings of the Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals and for the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable. In addition, you will find links to videos and minutes of previously held meetings of these two forums.

Continuing with their evaluation process, the FAA will submit the community-approved feasible items from the FAA Initiative to the remainder of the stakeholders – including the airlines. After completing this Stakeholder Feedback, the approved proposals will undergo the final steps in the FAA Evaluation Process — Environmental Review and Safety Assessment.

Congresswoman Speier will continue to work with the FAA, the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable, the Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals, elected officials, community leaders and the residents of her District to urge the FAA to do everything in its power to bring desperately needed noise relief to her constituents in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties.

∙ Click on the image to download the Congressional transmittal letter from Representatives Speier, Eshoo and Farr to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta which accompanied the reports of the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable and the Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals.

∙ Click here to download the joint press release from Representatives Speier, Eshoo and Farr regarding the transmittal of the reports of the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable and the Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals

FAA Initiative to Address Noise Concerns of Santa Cruz/Santa Clara/San Mateo/San Francisco Counties- released by the FAA May 16, 2016
∙  Phase One Report
∙  Phase One Report Appendices
∙  Executive Summary Feasibility Study