Laguna Sues FAA Over Airport Noise

By Jean Ardell | LB Indy

The City of Laguna Beach filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration that argues that new departure and approach patterns at John Wayne Airport were imposed without a full assessment of their environmental impact.

The suit, which was filed Friday, Oct. 25, in the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, follows within a day a similar suit filed last week by the City of Newport Beach.

The Laguna lawsuit “deals with the same subject matter, but the thrust in the Laguna Beach case is primarily the effects of noise levels,” City Attorney Phil Kohn said in explaining why Laguna had not joined Newport’s suit. Given Newport’s closer proximately to John Wayne Airport, its concerns are broader, involving air quality and greenhouse emissions as well as noise, Kohn said, adding that the court may later decide to consolidate the cities’ actions into one case.

The planned changes in flight patterns, which will be implemented in phases from November to April, are part of the FAA’s Southern California Metroplex project, which endeavors to replace its ground-based air traffic management with a GPS-based system and streamline its routes, according to the Metroplex website.

“The FAA’s take on it is that they’re improving things, that it’s all about safety,” said Melinda Seely, president of AirFair, which has advocated since 2002 for stricter environmental controls on John Wayne Airport. “Safety is well and good, but there are too many details not covered in the environmental assessment report that aren’t understood.”

“John Wayne Airport is one of the busiest and most noise sensitive airports in the United States,” according to the airport website. Under a 1985 settlement agreement, the county governs the airport with the City of Newport Beach, Stop Polluting Our Newport, a group dedicated to preserving the community’s charm, and the Airport Working Group, whose members are aviation professionals.

A cap limits passengers to 10.8 million annually and a county noise ordinance restricts hours of operation between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., said Tony Cangey, a county airport noise specialist. In June, the airport accommodated 25,111 aircraft and 929,000 travelers, a 19.6 percent increase in take-offs and landings and a 9.4 percent increase in passengers, respectively, compared to June 2015, says the Working Group website.

The FAA’s Metroplex Project website offers a Google Earth link that permits viewers to examine data showing the environmental assessment’s changes in noise levels at various grid points throughout Southern California. An examination of the sites in Laguna shows a slight decrease in noise levels.

South Laguna resident David Pahnos, who examined the data, takes issue with the city’s decision to sue the FAA because its environmental impact report “lacked explanation and quantifiable data.”

“I have personally written over 100 environmental impact reports for the U.S. E.P.A.,” said Pahnos, “so I decided to take a look at the report, which is available online. I found that the report is data rich and highly detailed. More importantly, I found that for every sampling site in Laguna Beach noise levels will decrease with the new flight paths. The new flight paths are a positive benefit for Laguna Beach residents. There will be some increase in noise levels for Newport Beach, which explains their discontent, but Laguna Beach benefits.

“It seems to me very strange that Council is giving carte blanche to Rutan to run up a huge litigation bill to stop a plan that benefits us,” said Pahnos, a reference to Kohn’s employer, Rutan & Tucker.

Neither Kohn nor City Council member Toni Iseman, an outspoken advocate over airport noise, could be reached for comment.

Seely said that should the lawsuits prevail, the only change to the status quo would be that the FAA would be required to do an additional environmental impact study.