Airport noise solutions up in the air

by Dennis Geisinger

"Beginning August 13, the south parallel runway at
the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) will be closed for approximately

two months to allow for reconstruction of the center portion of the runway," according to the Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC).
The closure will add more noise to communities already frustrated with air traffic interruptions to their daily lives. The airport's remaining three runways will be used during reconstruction, and new decisions will be made about where aircraft will be in the sky.

"The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) local air traffic control personnel are responsible for determining how the runways at the airport are used and the headings aircraft are assigned," Melissa Scovronski, public affairs coordinator for the MAC told Southside Pride last week. "The FAA's first consideration is always safety when making these determinations," Scovronski said.

"The MAC has, however, worked with the local traffic controllers to determine runway use priorities, based on noise impacts on residents, to give the controllers some guidance in runway use decisions when conditions allow for such choices to be made," Scovronski continued. "Population density is the criteria generally used when making these decisions. However, I should point out that all of these 'runway use' decisions are vetted through and approved by the MSP Noise Oversight Committee, which consists of an equal number of representatives from the airline/aviation industry and the communities surrounding the airport," she said.

Attorneys and representatives of the MAC are still reviewing the settlement offer made on July 23 by the cities of Minneapolis, Richfield and Eagan, as well as the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority in their noise abatement suit, according to City of Minneapolis Assistant Attorney Corey Conover.

Hennepin County District Court Judge Stephen Aldrich will rule on the Cities' lawsuit on August 24 if no settlement has been reached. A class action suit lodged by seven homeowners on behalf of Minneapolis and Richfield homeowners living near the airport is also pending; a continuance was granted because not all the terms of a formal settlement were finalized.
"The City of Minneapolis is confident that the settlement offer seeks more noise relief for homeowners than the offer drafted in the related class action lawsuit," says the City's website.

The class action suit originally claimed that the MAC made an enforceable promise during the airport expansion process that began in 1996 to provide 5 decibel (dB) interior noise mitigation within the airport's 60-64 day/night noise level (DNL) contour, the computer-generated lines that represent equal noise levels on a noise exposure map.

DNL describes the average aircraft noise levels over a 24-hour period, typically an average day over the course of a year, according to information provided by the city. There is a penalty for air traffic between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. that adds 10 dB to the measured noise level because of the increased annoyance when ambient noise levels are lower and people are sleeping.

According to the MAC, between 1992 and 2005, 7,690 single-family homes and 661 multi-family units were insulated at a cost of more than $227.95 million. Homes in Minneapolis, Richfield, Eagan, Bloomington and Mendota Heights received new or reconditioned windows and doors, wall and attic insulation, central air, necessary venting or ductwork modifications, roof vents and attic baffling through the 1996 Part 150 residential sound insulation program.

Homes within the 2007 Part 150 Program's 65 DNL area were completed in 2006, and those located in the 2007 60-64 DNL noise contours are slated to receive central air conditioning. Participating homeowners would pay a co-payment ranging from 10 percent in the 64 DNL to 50 percent in the 60 DNL. Low-interest loans would be made available to help participating homeowners with their co-payments.

Residential land use inside a 65 dB DNL is considered incompatible by the FAA, Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to the City of Minneapolis. However, the City says many other federal agencies and world health organizations have found that even noise exposure lower than 65 dB in unacceptable.

The three cities involved in the suit want the court to require that the MAC provide the full 5 dB noise mitigation package to all homes located within the blocks touched by the MAC's predicted 2005 noise contour.

"Their 2007 contour map is a little over half of what their 2005 map was," said City of Minneapolis Assistant Attorney Corey Conover last week. According to the City, the noise exposure map that is being used for determining mitigation is based on a five-year projection of anticipated airport operations and the resulting noise exposure.

"I like to use the analogy of what kind of clothes you choose to wear when you go outside in the winter," said Conover. "Do you dress according to what you think is going to be the average temp, or do you dress according to how cold it's going to get?" he posed.