Airport noise drops slightly

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- Residents near the John Wayne Airport will

welcome a report that shows little change in the noise patterns from July

through September.

Aircraft noise at the airport dropped slightly during the third

quarter, while staying fairly flat for the year, according to a report

released Wednesday. The quarterly report shows noise levels dropped at

all but one of the airport’s 10 monitoring stations.

As noise levels dropped, so did the number of complaints called into

the airport’s noise hotline. The airport reported an 8.3% decline in the

number of complaint calls from the previous quarter, from 720 to 660.

The communities that topped the complaint list during the three-month

period include Balboa Peninsula, which logged 196 calls; Balboa Island,

with 84 calls; Westcliff, 71; and Eastbluff, 51.

“Those areas are consistently plagued by noise,” said Balboa Island

resident Colleen Smoot. “Unless you continue to call in and remind the

offenders, there would be no reason to stay within the sound

requirement.”

Smoot, a frequent caller, said she has been appointed by other Balboa

Island homeowners to place the bulk of the phone calls.

Another caller, who airport officials declined to identify, accounted

for 89% of the calls from Balboa Peninsula.

Curiously, residents of Santa Ana Heights, a community directly

beneath the flight path, placed only 11 complaint calls.

John Wayne Access and Noise Manager John Leyerle said residents in

Santa Ana Heights are probably less sensitive to aircraft noise because

they are more accustomed to hearing it.

“To some folks, noise is OK,” Leyerle said. “To others, it’s not.”

The airport has had fairly consistent noise levels since 1990, despite

nearly doubling its number of annual passengers. While 8 million

passengers are projected to use the airport this year, only 4 million

used it a decade ago.

Leyerle said noise has remained steady largely because of advances in

jet engine technology that have brought quieter planes to John Wayne.

The airport installed noise microphones to enforce the limits imposed

in the 1985 settlement agreement, which established legally enforceable

ceilings for commercial and general aviation aircraft.

The agreement -- struck between airport-owner Orange County, Newport

Beach, the Airport Working Group and Stop Polluting Our Newport -- also

imposed an annual cap of 8.4 million passengers, a nighttime curfew and

other restrictions. The caps are set to expire in 2005.

The report, which measured noise levels from July 1 to Sept. 30,

showed decreases at five of the six Newport Beach monitors, in addition

to the four outside the city. Noise levels increased slightly, from 57.7

to 57.9 decibels, at Station 7, at 1131 Back Bay Drive.

“The [noise data in the] report is fairly typical,” airport spokesman

Ann McCarley said.