COUNTYWIDE : Critics Denounce Jet Noise Proposals

Residents and officials from various parts of California on Monday accused the Federal Aviation Administration of attempting to wrest control of airports from local authorities through a one-size-fits-all national noise policy.

Under the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990, adopted in the waning hours of the last Congress, airports can phase out noisier older jets such as the Boeing 727 and the DC-8 by 1999. In exchange, airports are not supposed to restrict the use of quieter new-generation planes such as the Boeing 767 or the McDonnell Douglas Super 80.

At a congressional subcommittee hearing in Newport Beach attended by more than 500 people, a parade of witnesses said that the FAA’s proposed rules for implementing the national noise policy will undermine airport expansion agreements negotiated with airport neighbors. What is more, the witnesses said, the proposed rules give the FAA power to veto every restriction on quieter aircraft, even if a particular limit is needed to meet state and federal environmental laws.

“We are convinced that the proposed rules may actually make airport-capacity-enhancing projects more difficult, rather than less difficult, as Congress intended,” John Wayne Airport Manager Jan Mittermeier testified before the House Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee.

The four-hour hearing was convened by Reps. Barbara Boxer (D-San Francisco) and Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) at Newport-Harbor High School. Officials from Orange, Los Angeles, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties attended to argue in favor of for local control of noise policy.

Although John Wayne Airport is exempt from the national noise policy, hundreds of Newport Beach residents went to the hearing because, they said, they fear that the exemption will be taken away.

“I’m afraid we won’t always have it,” said Allan Beek, a Newport Beach environmental activist.

“We had to come today,” said Mary Norwood, another resident. “When was the last time you trusted the government?”

However, Newport Beach officials were prevented from giving testimony at the hearing and wrote an angry letter Monday to Cox and Boxer protesting that decision.

“The city has developed a detailed position on this issue and we have been denied an opportunity to express it,” said the letter from Mayor Phil Sansone.

Newport Beach officials said Cox and Boxer offered no explanation for keeping city staff members from testifying.

Mittermeier was joined at the witness table by Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and Tom Edwards of the Airport Working Group, a citizens’ organization.

Both Mittermeier and Riley also warned that the FAA’s proposals could prevent Orange County’s finding a site for a new airport to relieve congestion at John Wayne because the proposed rules conflict with state and federal environmental regulations that may require local noise rules to offset the negative impact of a new airport on the surrounding area.

Edwards’ group, a grass-roots organization, had questioned the constitutionality of the proposed FAA rules and had lobbied to have the Newport Beach hearing.

FAA Regional Administrator Carl Schellenberg defended the agency’s threat to withhold federal grants for airports that do not comply with policy.

Schellenberg cited authority granted by Congress to impose economic sanctions on airports, but he cautioned that the final regulations are not finished.