Hanover mounts a fight against noise at airport 

08/13/00
By Isaac-Davy Aronson, STAFF WRITER


ROBERT SCIARRINO/THE STAR-LEDGER 
MUFFLING THE AIRCRAFT 


Bill List doesn't like being woken up at 6 a.m. by the thunderous sound of a jet engine. 


He doesn't like the fact that he can't sit outside and enjoy the summer in peace and quiet, and he certainly doesn't like it when jets scream over his back yard at low altitudes. 


Each morning, the 59-year-old retiree can look north to Hanover, home of the Morristown Airport, and watch jets take off toward his Madison home. 


Dissatisfied with the airport's and the Federal Aviation Administration's response to its noise complaints, Hanover officials are going on the offensive against airplane noise. 


The township has spent about $16,000 to purchase a sound monitoring system that will measure aircraft noise levels. Mayor Ronald Francioli wants the FAA to perform a noise analysis of the Morristown Airport, and he is hoping that the new system will provide data to warrant such a study. The new system should be operational in the next few months. 


The airport and the FAA say they are doing everything they can to reduce noise, which has been a mounting concern around the Morristown Airport as population and development have increased in the surrounding area. 


Built in Hanover by the military in 1940, the airport was considered "surplus property" after World War II when Morristown took control of it. The 637-acre site has grown into the second-busiest airport in the state, only behind Newark International, and logs 250,000 takeoffs and landings annually, according to the FAA. 


But the noise may only get worse now that the airport may be receiving traffic diverted from Teterboro, the state's third-busiest airport, as it conducts repairs to its runways during the next few months. 


Kerry Ahearn, Morristown Airport's noise abatement officer, said the number of noise complaints the airport receives fluctuates from season to season. "In the spring, when people open their windows, the complaints start," she said. 


''The noise is surprisingly bad," said Jim Burnet, vice president of the Madison-based Quieter Environment through Sound Thinking, or QUEST. "Professors at Drew (University) have to stop lecturing" every time a plane goes over. 


List, also a member of QUEST, said the organization has collected 5,000 noise complaints during a one- year period from all over Madison. 


''The way the FAA routes planes, they go right over the middle of Madison," said List. 


''There are times when we're sitting in our family room, and we'll see the headlights of the planes coming in through the trees," said Burnet, 35. 


According to Bill Bruckhauer, director of the Morristown Airport, corporate jets -- which spark most of the complaints -- account for about one- third of the airport's traffic. 


Jets based at the airport include those of Ray Chambers, YankeeNets co-owner and philanthropist, and Michael Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg Financial Markets and Bloomberg News. 


Bruckhauer said the airport has done a lot to manage noise, including using flight paths over residential areas only when necessary, requiring aircraft to climb as quickly as possible when departing, educating pilots on noise-sensitive areas, and posting runway signs to remind pilots of noise procedures. 


Almost all the planes at the airport have upgraded to quieter engines during the past 10 years. As a noise deterrent, the airport attempted to charge fees for planes with louder engines departing at night, but Bruckhauer said the FAA ruled that such a fee would interfere with interstate commerce. 


''In our business, we say you manage aircraft noise but you don't eliminate it," he said. 


But Hanover officials aren't satisfied with the management. 


''We just don't feel that the airport and the FAA have done enough," said Hanover Township Administrator Joe Giorgio. 


Which is why the township may go after individual plane operators, the mayor said. Hanover may pass an ordinance making it illegal for aircraft to operate above a certain level of noise and will issue summonses to the owners of offending planes. 


Knowing that the planes in the air fall under the jurisdiction of the FAA, not a local government, Hanover expects legal battles if it begins issuing tickets. 


''We're going to say that anything that disturbs our residents is our jurisdiction," Francioli said. 


FAA spokesman Arlene Salac said the Environmental Protection Agency establishes federal guidelines for acceptable noise levels in residential areas. "I don't know what their success would be in trying to prosecute individuals, but the federal guidelines would supersede state or local ones," Salac said. 


''There's very little that local municipalities can do to control airports," said Burnet. 


Bruckhauer said Morristown Airport responds to noise complaints as best it can, but it cannot do anything unless a pilot has broken the airport's rules. 


''There's a small group of people who call us a lot and view airplanes flying over their houses as a personal affront. I can't help people like that. They live near an airport, and planes are going to fly over their houses," said Bruckhauer. 


''To ignore the problem would be derelict, but we've done everything we can," the airport director said. 


According to Ahearn, the airport recently submitted a request to the FAA to reroute some of its flight paths to reduce noise, and in that way, she said, noise reduction is the FAA's responsibility. 


''You could draw a direct path from the airport over the Exxon property, an unused school, and corporate parks, but instead they go over houses," said Burnet. 


But rerouting may not be as easy as it seems. 


The airspace in the New York area is the busiest in the world, said Bruckhauer. Morristown and Newark, the two busiest airports in the state, sometimes vie for airspace. 


''When you talk to the FAA about rerouting, the response is usually that they'd like to help but they don't have the airspace to work with," he said. 


''You're pretty hard-pressed to find airspace around here," Salac agreed. 


The FAA is working on a long- term airspace redesign, which should "increase efficiency and decrease noise where possible," Salac said, adding that the FAA would look at any data the Hanover study produced in the context of its larger project. 


In the meantime, the airport is upgrading its facilities, and this has some people worried about what kind of traffic and how much of it is in the airport's future. 


''They're trying to get rid of the small planes to make more room for the jets that buy more fuel," said Barry Palmer, president of the Morristown Airport Pilots Association. 


Bruckhauer said there will be enough room at other sites at the airport for small planes displaced by new facilities. 


''Upgrading says to me they're going to be bringing more traffic in and out," said List, "and that would be an addition to noise." 


Isaac-Davy Aronson is a reporter in the Morris news bureau. He can be reached at (973) 539-7910.