January 2024 New Years Update from MoCo Quiet Skies Coalition
January 16, 2024
Hello and New Year’s greetings from the Montgomery County Quiet Skies Coalition!
The new year is an opportunity to reflect on what we learned and accomplished in 2023 as we continue to seek solutions to excessive and repetitive aircraft noise in our communities.
Re. our multi-year effort to reduce noise impacts by moving flight paths to more compatible areas and introducing dispersion when possible, the FAA informed the DCA Community Working Group (CWG) at the November 2023 meeting that the proposed changes to south-flow approach procedures (Recommendation 22 dated 7/21/21) are now expected to be implemented in May 2024. This is a few months earlier than previously expected. Once the new procedure changes are implemented, MoCo Quiet Skies will be hosting a celebration – so stay tuned!
Meanwhile, the DCA Community Working Group (CWG) continued to hold quarterly meetings virtually in 2023 to address ongoing issues with noise across the DMV region. A Fly Quiet Subcommittee was formed to develop recommendations to influence airlines to operate as quietly as possible out of DCA; more work on that will occur in 2024. You can read summaries of 2023 CWG meetings and see the presentations that were shared at those meetings here.
Many factors affected noise from DCA operations in 2023. The volume of passengers and aircraft at DCA returned to and eventually surpassed pre-pandemic levels; many of you reported that noise levels became once again intolerable much of the time. Please continue to file complaints. A temporary nighttime respite occurred during the summer and early fall, when runway repaving at DCA eliminated most flights between the hours of 11 PM and 6 AM, but early morning and late night operations have since resumed, and some newly scheduled flights are departing DCA as early as 5 AM. Ouch.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2023 initiated its first aviation noise policy review in over 50 years, thanks to intense and unrelenting pressure from advocacy groups like ours, and with efforts by the Congressional Quiet Skies Caucus (thank you to our strong supporter, Representative Jamie Raskin). MoCo Quiet Skies leaders and dozens of our individual members filed comments for this noise policy review – THANK YOU!! You can find your own comment(s) or those of others in the FAA docket here under the button “Browse All Comments.” You can find the detailed technical and policy comments that MoCo Quiet Skies Coalition leaders submitted online here. Nearly 5,000 comments were submitted overall, a stark indication of how many people nationwide are affected by airplane noise.
As part of the 2023 FAA Reauthorization process, Delta Airlines and some powerful members of Congress pushed to add more exceptions to the slot and perimeter rules at DCA, which would result in more long-haul flights at DCA. MoCo Quiet Skies sent numerous updates and action items to our members about this issue. THANK YOU SO MUCH to the many individuals who wrote and called Congress about this issue, urging them to stand strong against any effort to expand operations at DCA. We don’t yet know how this will turn out, as Congress has not yet passed a final FAA Reauthorization (the House passed a version in the fall that did not include any changes; the Senate version is pending). The history of this issue to date can be reviewed on our website here. We will keep up the pressure and let you know if there is more to be done.
Aircraft noise received more attention nationally as a public health hazard in the past year, not merely as an annoyance. The NY Times published a lengthy, interactive article, Noise Could Take Years Off Your Life: Here’s How, about the hazards of noise pollution. Health concerns and studies about the serious health impacts caused by airplane noise were highlighted at meetings and airport roundtables around the country, including an informative 18-minute presentation at the April DCA CWG meeting: Aircraft Noise and Emissions Health and Environmental Impacts: A Primer (produced and distributed by the national group Quiet Communities).
Speaking of Quiet Communities, it also filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year for its failure to enforce the Noise Control Act of 1972. A positive outcome would bring vastly more federal resources to bear on noise pollution nationally, including aviation noise pollution, so we are watching this carefully. MCQSC members who wish to support this and other efforts of Quiet Communities can do so here.
THANK YOU to everyone who graciously shared their time and expertise with MCQSC in 2023! We look forward to your continued and active participation in 2024 and beyond. To that end, we intend to hold some in-person meetings this year to collectively discuss priorities for 2024 (and beyond). Look for that invitation in the coming weeks or months, and please attend if you possibly can.
At a minimum, to ensure that our elected officials know that the airplane noise issue is still important to their constituents, it’s always worth writing or calling to remind them! Please call or email the following officials to thank them for their continued support for mitigation of airplane noise, and remind them that this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction or that of your neighbors, and that you want them to continue to treat it as a top priority in 2024.
● Rep. Jamie Raskin: https://raskin.house.gov/email-jamie
● Sen. Van Hollen: https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/contact/email
● Marc Elrich, County Executive: https://montgomerycountymd.gov/exec/Contactcex.aspx
● Andrew Friedson, District 1 MoCo Councilmember and current County Council President: councilmember.friedson@montgomerycountymd.gov.
● MD State Delegate Marc Korman marc.korman@house.state.md.us
● MD State Delegate Sara Love SaraLove4MD@gmail.com
● MD State Delegate Sarah Wolek sarah.wolek@house.state.md.us
● MD State Senator Susan Lee: susan.lee@senate.state.md.us
Constant and repetitive aircraft noise is a problem that must be resolved because noise is a serious public health problem.
Thank you for your ongoing support! (Donations to MCQSC can be made online here.)
