New Federal Noise Policy Won’t Apply to Airport : Regulations: The legislation, part of the congressional budget package, exempts from federal review existing guidelines at airports such as John Wayne.

A new national airport noise policy approved by Congress on Saturday is not likely to upset the delicately balanced noise-control agreements that govern air traffic at John Wayne Airport, Orange County’s top airport official said.

As part of the complex budget bill, the House and Senate approved aviation legislation that contained the noise-control policy and provisions for new passenger fees to finance local airport improvement projects.

The legislation was written to “grandfather,” or largely exempt from federal review, existing noise policies at airports such as John Wayne, according to local officials and congressional aides.

“We’re real pleased,” said Jan Mittermeier, manager of the county-owned airport. “Orange County really went all out to get this grandfather provision in there.

“We felt it was just not right to have the contract made with the citizens overridden by federal provisions, so we really pulled out all the stops. Our congressmen worked very hard to get this through.”

But Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) has expressed concern about the extent to which the grandfather language will protect future changes in Orange County’s noise-control plan. Cox is a member of the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation, and lobbied against adoption of the new noise policy.

A noise-control agreement in effect at John Wayne Airport since 1985 bars operation of the noisiest, or so-called Stage II, aircraft such as Boeing 747s. The agreement mandates that outgoing flights take off no earlier than 7 a.m. and no later than 10 p.m., while incoming flights must land before 11 p.m. The agreement was reached as part of a settlement of a series of longstanding lawsuits that sought to block expansion of the airport.

The grandfather language in the new national noise policy “is clearly intended as an exemption for Orange County,” Cox said Saturday. “But it’s not perfect.”

The new noise policy exempts from federal review all local airport noise policies in effect on the date of the legislation’s enactment. However, future changes in local airport noise rules will escape federal scrutiny only if the changes do not restrict aircraft operations or affect aircraft safety.

Cox said he could foresee circumstances under which an airline might argue that almost any change in an existing noise policy would restrict aircraft operations and thus make the change subject to review by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Despite Cox’s reservations, Mittermeier said she believes the exemption language “will work just fine,” because a future amendment to the airport’s noise-control plan “would not change any of the basic concepts of the plan. It would change some of the mechanics.”

David C. Coggin, the top aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), who also sits on the Public Works and Transportation Committee, agreed with Mittermeier. Packard represents southern Orange County.

“They can amend the policy at John Wayne and it won’t be subject to review unless it has a safety impact, which it shouldn’t, or unless it would reduce aircraft operations, which it shouldn’t,” Coggin said.

Barbara Lichman, a member of the Airport Working Group, the county’s most influential anti-noise organization, said Saturday she is happy that John Wayne Airport appears to be exempt from the new policy.

But she said she and the group remain outraged at “how the bill was passed and what it does to other communities” that do not have existing noise restriction arrangements.

“We’re happy about our own situation in a parochial way, but we will continue to fight the bill, if that means legal action, fine, or additional political action,” Lichman said.

Cox said overwhelming support from Orange County voters and officials helped push through the exemptions, however imperfect they are.

The Bush Administration had sought both the passenger fees and the noise policy.

Secretary of Transportation Samuel K. Skinner, as well as most major airlines, argued that a national noise policy is needed to lend consistency to what critics describe as a hodgepodge of local rules and regulations at airports across the country. The Department of Transportation estimates that 400 separate noise rules are in effect across the country.

The new fees, called passenger facility charges, could amount to as much as $12 for a single, one-way trip.

The charges are expected to generate up to $1 billion nationally every year for airport improvements.