Airport noise plan never gets off the ground

Madison Eagle
27-Mar-2003

HANOVER TWP. - A new takeoff pattern at Morristown Airport would have made Madison residents happier by lowering noise levels, but Chatham would have paid the price for it.

In a study released last Thursday, alternative plans for runway 23 off Columbia Turnpike, the longer of the airport's two runways, would simply shift the noise problem from one neighborhood to another and would not be acceptable to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to airport Director William Barkhauer.

As a result, D.M. Airport Developers Inc., which runs the town-owned airport, said it would not seek approval from the FAA for the procedure.

A plan for noise mitigation had focused on seeking FAA approval to allow planes taking off from the 6,000-foot runway to make their first turn three or four miles south of the runway instead of one mile as they do now.

However, such a shift would simply shift the noise problem from Madison to Chatham and Harding Township.

Barkhauer said the FAA has historically refused to approve a plan that shifts air traffic without any recognizable benefit.

"Obviously, we were hoping for a better result," Barkhauer said. Barkhauer added that he would continue to meet with residents and county officials to appeal to congress for engine upgrades on all business jets.

Bill List, president of the Quieter Environment Through Sound Thinking (QUEST), expressed disappointment, but said he is unbowed.

"It's not over," he said. "We are going to have to try a different approach. But we are disappointed nothing has come out of this that will help our situation."

The group has been advocating a change for almost five years.

Airport officials said they wished for a different outcome, too, but contended the FAA would have rejected the change they studied anyway because it would have put Morristown planes in conflict with airliners headed for Newark Liberty International Airport.

"We live in the busiest airspace in the world," Barkhauer said. "Even if we came up with a new departure plan, the FAA wouldn't be able to implement it."

According to the study, fewer noisier aircraft by 2008 should shrink the area affected by almost 30 percent.

That could happen sooner if Congress repealed a current exemption and forced private aircraft to hush noisier jet engines, just as they required airlines to do in a 1990 law.

Barkhauer said only one of the so-called Stage 2 aircraft remains based at Morristown, although similar planes comprise a significant amount of the airport's non airport-based business.

With 236,000 flights last year, Morristown was the state's second- busiest airport after Newark Liberty, which had 411,000 flights last year, according to the FAA.

The $40,000 analysis by consultant McFarland-Johnson Inc., Binghamton, N.Y., was to be discussed at a public meeting yesterday, Wednesday, at the Westin Hotel in Morris Township.

According to Barkhauer, data showing most areas experiencing noise were at levels below 65 decibels, the nuisance threshold set by the FAA. It is comparable to the kind of noise neighbors to an interstate highway would experience.

According to the study, 4,270 acres fall within noise levels measuring 55 decibels and 1,088 acres are within levels of 65 and 70 decibels. Changing the pattern would reduce the 55-decibel area by 92 acres, but add another 13 acres to the area already hearing 65 decibels.

The 65-decibel contour stretches from the end of Runway 23 at Columbia Turnpike to the edge of the campus of St. Elizabeth's College. Implementing a new pattern would stretch the contour about three miles into Chatham, according to the study.

When only residential areas are considered, the change would take away 129 acres from the area within the 55-decibel zone but add 36 acres to the area already in the 60-decibel zone.

"Hence, the conclusion, it's noise shifting without merit," Barkhauer said.

According to List, it is the departures from Runway 23 that generate much of the aircraft noise experienced by residents of Madison and surrounding communities south of the airport.

List noted QUEST "has worked long and hard with support from local and federal elected officials to bring about such a change" in the departing flight path.

List had suggested aircraft could depart over the Giralda Farms office complex off Madison Avenue in Madison, which he noted is "home to some of the corporations that have aircraft based" at Morristown Airport.

According to Kerry L. Ahearn, operations manager and noise abatement officer at Morristown Airport, packets of information summarizing the Runway 23 study results was mailed to everyone who attended the first public information workshop on this study last Oct. 30 at the Hamilton Park Conference Center in Florham Park.

Present at the March 26 meeting were to be representatives of the FAA and of McFarland-Johnson.

While located in Hanover Township, the airport is under the jurisdiction of Morristown, which owns the land and rents it to the airport under the terms of a 99-year lease.

Complaints about air traffic noise from Morristown Airport, and an increase in jet activity there in particular, has been a front-burner issue for the past several years for QUEST and for mayors in the region who make up the ad hoc Inter Municipal Airport Committee.

Airport managers, meanwhile, counter that noise complaints to the airport are decreasing, and argue that noise abatements steps they have taken are proving effective.

Following meetings with mayors in December and airport managers in January, the Morris County Board of Freeholders decided on Feb. 20 to create an aviation committee to monitor Morristown Airport issues and their effect on residents of the area.

©Recorder Newspapers 2003