Marshall says Shhh! to jet noise

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall issued a call to action concerning the Federal Airline Association’s (FAA) renovation of the airspace over Queens due to a surge in air traffic and delays.
After addressing her concerns in a letter to the FAA last May, she recently redoubled her efforts to enact changes concerning jet noise, health risks, and air pollution around the LaGuardia and JFK areas.
Both Queens airports are in the top three most congested in the country, and the FAA even acknowledged in its redesign plans the congestion and delays are the worst in the country.
One solution Marshall proposed was that the agency incorporate nighttime abatement procedures in its decade-old Airspace Redesign Project.
That includes rerouting over water or industrial areas, instead of residential and noise-sensitive areas such as hospitals, and should “include more educational and medical buildings in the Airport Improvement Program to insulate buildings from aircraft noise.”
She said that local airport operators and municipalities should have a greater say in the FAA’s development, and the FAA needs to enforce a system limiting the decibel levels of aircraft noise over highly populated residential areas.
Marshall has also been working with the Port Authority to implement a residential noise abatement program.
In addition to the noise, smog pollution emitted from the jets also creates health risks to residents in nearby communities. According to Marshall, the congestion and increase in jets affects the quality of life in Queens and she called on the FAA to visit the neighborhoods surrounding the airports.
“As Borough President, I count among my constituents not only the two airports and their tenants, employees and customers, but also more than two million residents, who make their home here,” said Marshall.
In the FAA’s Air Design Program, they admitted that “an increasing number of jets have saturated the jet route,” but by 2011 they plan to reduce airline traffic and delays up to 20 percent.
Marshall said that the FAA could be implementing its plans for redesign during the upcoming months.
“I want the aviation industry to thrive, but not at the expense of Queens residents.”