County’s Airport Noise Law Seems Safe for Now : Aviation: Congressional passage of new policy that would ease O.C. limits is unlikely this year but isn’t dead yet, insiders say. County officials are fighting to stop it.

WASHINGTON —  Congressional passage of a new national airport noise policy that has outraged John Wayne Airport officials appears increasingly unlikely this year, but the proposal is not yet dead, officials said Tuesday.

The noise policy is included in aviation legislation that also contains a plan to levy new fees on passengers. The entire package ran aground Tuesday in a House-Senate conference because of a last-minute flap over landing “slots” at East Coast airports.

“The deal is off,” said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), referring to a tentative agreement that might have led to passage of a noise policy this year. Cox strongly opposes the noise provisions.

But key congressional aides said that it was too early to pronounce the agreement dead and that a deal that would include a national noise policy remains possible in the next day or two.

Orange County officials in recent weeks have lobbied heavily against the noise proposal. They contend that granting noise-control authority to the federal government would upset a delicately balanced, 5-year-old agreement on commercial flight schedules and noise levels that has permitted the expansion of county-owned John Wayne Airport.

“We don’t think the federal government should be able to come in with a policy that totally tosses out what took years to negotiate, particularly when it’s working so successfully,” said Jan Mittermeier, the airport manager.

Even if Congress fails to enact a noise policy this year, it is almost certain that the issue will be revived when the 102nd Congress convenes in January, officials said.

Secretary of Transportation Samuel K. Skinner and the major airlines favor development of a national airport noise policy to lend consistency to what critics describe as a hodgepodge of local rules and regulations at airports across the country.

A central issue facing Congress is the extent to which a new national policy would leave in place, or “grandfather,” existing airport noise policies. Such policies were developed in recent years at perhaps two dozen American airports as exploding residential development pushed housing closer and closer to flight lines.

At John Wayne Airport, airlines are barred from operating the noisiest, or Stage II aircraft, such as Boeing 747s. In addition, outgoing flights may take off no earlier than 7 a.m. and no later than 10 p.m., while incoming flights may not land after 11 p.m. The agreement was reached in 1985 as part of an out-of-court settlement of a series of longstanding lawsuits that sought to block expansion of the airport.

Early this month, the aviation subcommittee of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee held hearings on what panel members thought would be an effort to enact a noise policy sometime next year.

But the effort was short-circuited when Sen. Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.) introduced legislation in the Senate to mandate a national airport noise policy as well as the new passenger fees, known as passenger facility charges. The fees, sought by the Bush Administration, would help airports pay for needed capital improvement projects and at the same time reduce airport dependence on federal dollars.

The Ford legislation, a reauthorization measure that would extend the life of the Federal Aviation Administration, ultimately was attached to the Senate version of the federal budget bill.

Although the Ford bill contained language that exempted, at least temporarily, existing local noise policies from federal review, it set off a storm of protest among local officials who were concerned that the grandfather provisions were not strong enough.

Last week, Senate and House negotiators began meeting to iron out the differences between the FAA reauthorization bill passed by the Senate and an earlier version passed by the House. The House bill contained language creating the passenger fees, but not the noise policy.

Some House members, such as Cox, opposed enactment of a noise policy this year, contending that the policy should be fully aired at public hearings and in legislative debate. But others, including Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), were willing to accept a noise policy as long as its grandfather provisions were stronger than those contained in the Senate bill.

Mittermeier said Orange County officials were satisfied with toughened grandfather language drafted by House negotiators.

“I thought we had some pretty good language in there to protect John Wayne and some of the other airports,” she said. “I think it would be kind of disappointing if this all goes away and we have to do it all over again” next year.

The House-Senate negotiations were scuttled Tuesday, but neither the passenger fees nor the noise policy was to blame.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the Senate negotiators, had insisted on including a provision that would have expanded the number of “slots” available to airlines at La Guardia Airport in New York City and National Airport in Washington.

La Guardia, National, O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and Los Angeles International Airport are the only four airports in the country that operate under a system in which airlines are allotted “slots” by the FAA to control airport congestion. Since 1985, airlines have been permitted to sell their slots, and some have fetched prices of up to $1.7 million.

McCain’s move was widely seen in Congress as an attempt to assist America West, a Phoenix-based airline that for years has struggled to break into the congested airports.

House negotiators were adamantly opposed to handing out more slots to benefit a single business interest, congressional aides said, while the Senate negotiators have said they must accommodate McCain.

On Tuesday morning, Ford officially rejected a House offer that included language creating a noise policy and passenger facility charges, but not additional airline slots. Several aides said that House and Senate negotiators are close on the passenger fee and noise policy issues.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” said one Senate aide.