Commentary by Frank Schroth

The FAA is a large federal agency tasked with the safe, efficient air travel and traffic control. There are over 5,000 flights daily carrying over a million people. In an effort to improve efficiency the FAA recently put into place a RNAV system on runway 33L at Logan. This was the last runway to be upgraded. It was an expensive project and it is done. But what will the impact be and how can it be accurately measured?

We recently reported that the FAA opened up runway 33L for departures. As one reader asked: Wasn’t that runway already open? Yes it was. (It was closed during the summer months is 2011 and 2012). What was “opened” was new GPS technology that increased the number of departing flights. You can find the press release here. The press release does not mention the increase of flights, which will put additional air traffic over Dedham, Milton and Canton, among other communities. These communities have concerns (see roundup of news here.).

This isn’t the only part of the country unhappy with the FAA. Here are two other recent examples,

1. Los Angelenos are protesting the incessant noise of helicopters to the point where legislation is being introduced.

2. The Federal Aviation Administration recently put in place a new flight path pattern for the New York Metro area, which has caused much of the complaints from residents about noise, putting the path of the planes over heavily residential neighborhoods, more so than in the past, with planes coming overhead and landing at about one-minute intervals. (See article here.)

At the heart of the matter here in Milton is not so much an increase in flights as it is an increase in noise. The FAA maintains that the noise level will not increase because while there are more flights departing, they are flying at a higher altitude. Well . . .  if you say so.

To know whether the noise has increased or decreased assumes that one has an accurate method for measuring it. There is a single monitor at Cunningham Park. Is that sufficient for measuring noise in all parts of town? Is there any notion of a standard deviation and if so how great is it? Does it account for the unique topographical features of the town (e.g. the Blue Hills)? Terry English, the FAA liaison, has not answered an email asking these questions.

We expect everything is going to be OK (though I can easily hear the steady patter of planes flying overhead at the moment – were they there yesterday?). Flights will arrive and land safely and the noise and environmental impacts will not significantly change. But that is not the point. Residents have concerns, natural concerns, about their quality of life, their home values and their health, and Ms. English should answer them. She should do better. Our experience here is accurately described by Assemblyman Edward Braunstein from Bayside Queens who said, regarding recent flight changes over his district:

“In fact, the FAA for our area in northeast Queens, issued a categorical exclusion that said that their change would have no significant impact on the surrounding communities so they could go ahead with it; basically self-certifying that everything’s going to be fine.”

We have been given the same message. Specifically,

 After careful and thorough consideration of the facts contained herein, the undersigned finds that the proposed Federal action, namely the implementation of an RNAV SID for Runway 33L at Logan Airport, is consistent with existing national environmental policies and objectives as set forth in Section 101 of NEPA and other applicable environmental requirements and is not a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment or otherwise, including any condition requiring consultation pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of NEPA.
— Elizabeth Ray, VP of Mission Support Services (You can find links to complete report here.)

Our confidence level is not high in the methods they use to measure and compare environmental impacts brought on by changes in the management of flights in and out of Logan. The towns affected by this change deserve a better explanation than the FAA and Ms English have delivered.