"City noise expert raps PDX study"

Monday, August 11, 2003

City noise expert raps PDX study
By SCOTT HEWITT
The Vancouver (WA) Columbian


Nighttime runway restrictions, shifted flight paths and steepened angles of
arrival and departure would help dampen the roar of jet planes flying in and
out of Portland International Airport especially for people on the west side
of Vancouver.

    But there's no magic way to eliminate airport noise. A report issued by
Williams Aviation Consulting, hired last spring by the city of Vancouver to
study the aircraft noise problem from the Washington perspective, critiques
PDX's ongoing noise study and offers new suggestions of its own but doesn't
seem to hold out hope for major noise reductions.

    "It's not really a breakthrough," said Tom Jacobs, a Vancouver
neighborhood activist who's studied the report on behalf of the Clark County
Airport Issues Roundtable. "It's marginal mitigation. People have looked for
some really dramatic changes in the airport and it's just not technically
possible at the present time."

    Nevertheless, fellow CCAIR activist Sonya Zalubowski is preparing an
official delivery of hundreds of petition signatures and other anti-noise
materials like workbooks filled out by citizens after a recent PDX open
house to Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard next week.

    "We see the support we have garnered indicative of support for any kind
of reform in the airport noise and pollution over our fair city," she wrote
in an e-mail.

    Jim Jacks, Vancouver's citizen advocate and a member of the PDX noise
study advisory group, met Thursday with fellow members of the group from
north of the Columbia River to review the report. A letter from the city of
Vancouver to the Port of Portland, which operates PDX, requesting further
consideration of various ideas will follow, he said.

    Consideration for Vancouver's position and opinions features prominently
in the report, which recommends a new intergovernmental agreement that would
give the cities of Vancouver and Portland more clout as PDX and the Federal
Aviation Administration develop, use and change noise control procedures.

    "As far as I know there's no official agreement in place that says,
'Here are our procedures and they'll stay that way until everybody approves
a change,'" said Tom Kamman, principal report author. "Whatever is agreed
upon and whatever is in place right now should be institutionalized between
governments."

    That would give the city of Vancouver greater leverage to suggest,
question and approve measures taken by PDX, Kamman said. The agreement would
be signed by the Port of Portland, the Federal Aviation Administration and
the cities of Portland and Vancouver.

    The report concludes that many of the options recently forwarded to the
public by Portland International Airport's noise study committee wouldn't
help Vancouver. And the one that noise foes recently seized upon seems in
doubt because of FAA reservations regarding satellite-guided procedures.

    That option is a flight path shift of two or three degrees to the south
for airplanes departing to the west from PDX's north runway. The move would
push the planes away from downtown Vancouver and even south of Hayden
Island.

    The new flight path would reduce the number of 65-decibel "noise events"
measured in west Vancouver on a daily basis from 200 to nearly none.
Activists and city staff have been enthusiastic about the idea.

    The FAA may not share the enthusiasm, Kamman said. "We have some
concerns about whether that procedure meets FAA requirements," Kamman said.

    But similarly bending the eastbound arrival flight path to the south is
possible, he said, without running into similar technical problems. "We're
saying, you should offset that approach to the north runway and avoid the
overflight of downtown."

    That's the best hope Vancouver has, Jacobs believes. "The major impacts
are where you have planes flying over populations as opposed to flying over
the river," he said. "You could achieve very significant change if you can
shift the flight path."

    The Williams report also recommends that PDX adopt overnight-use
restrictions, channeling traffic toward the south runway and away from
Vancouver when traffic already is lightest.

    "Use of the south runway is critical to Vancouver," Jacobs said. "If you
can use that south runway you'll avoid flying over Vancouver. You can do
that on a preferential basis, when traffic is low and you don't need two
runways."

    The report questions the PDX noise study work on several fronts, saying
it omits noise from military flights and seems skewed to clear the way for
greater traffic volumes. And it supports the suggestion that the airport
publish "report cards" evaluating airline compliance with procedures that
target noise.

    "Some people may say these things are all political window dressing, but
our experience has been that the airline industry tries very hard to comply,
and takes these kinds of programs seriously," Kamman said.

    Jacobs said he doesn't yet know whether CCAIR will lobby the city to
retain Williams to do more work. But he complimented the city for spending
$5,000 to hire the firm in the first place, pointing out the level of
expertise required to discuss technical issues.

    "The city put its money where its mouth is," he said. "It should be
commended for bringing this expertise to table."

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