County Fights to Save Airport Jet-Noise Limits : Legislation: Senate bill would set federal standard lower than that in effect at Wayne. Supervisors are ‘adamantly opposed.’

Newport Beach and Orange County officials have waged a frantic lobbying campaign in recent days to defeat a Senate bill that could undermine aircraft noise restrictions at John Wayne Airport, threatening to usher in an era of increased jet noise and flights.

The bill would establish a new federal airport noise standard, but those regulations would be far more lax than existing rules in Orange County, which has the strictest limits in the nation.

During a news conference Tuesday, Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth said he and his colleagues are “adamantly opposed” to the legislation.

“Because we live and work here, we know the concerns of our community” better than federal officials, Roth said. “We have the tools to address them. And we do not want the federal government controlling this process.”

Although opponents in the Senate and the House of Representatives remain confident they could scotch the aircraft-noise proposal by Sen. Wendell H. Ford (R-Ky.) before it becomes law, local officials aren’t taking any chances. They want to ensure that the legislation--tacked onto the federal budget now being debated in Congress--is defeated in the Senate.

“We don’t feel that confident at all,” said Ken Delino, Newport Beach’s deputy city manager. “You never know what could happen.”

During the past week, Newport Beach officials have made countless telephone calls to congressmen as well as rallying airport-noise groups around the nation in an effort to defeat Ford’s bill, Delino said.

“This is a nationwide issue,” Delino said. “There are thousands and thousands of airports across the country with noise mitigation measures, and all of them would be eliminated in one fell swoop if this bill is passed.”

While local officials remain cautious, authorities in Washington say the odds that the Ford bill will escape the Senate appeared slim.

Murray Flander, a spokesman for Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), said Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) has announced he will introduce an amendment to strip the aircraft noise provisions from the budget bill.

If that effort fails, the legislation could still be killed during negotiations with the House leadership, according to David Coggin, chief of staff for Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad). Coggin said a large majority of representatives are opposed to the Ford bill.

The Senate bill includes a provision for the federal government to charge a per-passenger fee on commercial flights to fund construction of new airports, an idea that has wide backing, given the current crunch at the nation’s airports. The House version of Ford’s bill contains the passenger finance charges but none of the aircraft noise regulations that are included in the Senate version.

While the concept of a nationwide policy restricting aircraft noise is welcomed in many communities where no such regulations are currently in effect, the proposal has caused qualms in areas such as Orange County.

If the Ford bill became law, Orange County would lose its ability to regulate flights and enforce a 10 p.m. departure curfew, established in 1985 to settle a two-decade-long battle over aircraft noise between Newport Beach and the county, which runs John Wayne Airport.

Roth said that any effort to expand the number of flights at airports across the country will hinge on assurances that local citizens can help craft noise rules as they see fit. If residents lack the ability to determine airport noise limits, they will frown on any expansion plans, he suggested.

“Sen. Ford’s bill is a direct affront to the concept of local control,” Roth said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said Tuesday during a visit to Orange County that he favors a uniform noise protection law, but not the pending Senate bill.

“I know that that’s a big issue in Orange County. I am not unsympathetic,” Skinner said during a news conference in Irvine.

But he said the hodgepodge of aircraft-noise regulations is hurting the country’s productivity.

“The aviation system in this country and the capacity of that system is being affected dramatically in a negative way by the proliferation of noise ordinances on a local basis with no commonality from jurisdiction to jurisdiction,” Skinner said.

While the airlines are preparing to use quieter aircraft, they want to be assured that if they make this multibillion-dollar commitment there will be a reasoned approach to the next level of noise protection, he said.

“I don’t think that’s an unusual request,” Skinner said.

Skinner’s visit was part of a three-day trip to Southern California that includes fund-raising activities on behalf of Republican candidates on the Nov. 6 ballot. He was the guest of honor Tuesday at a reception hosted by the Irvine Co.