Airport EIR Lists Price for Safer Takeoffs at John Wayne : Aircraft: Santa Ana Heights residents must endure more noise or airlines must reduce use of the loud McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jet, it says.
Plans to allow noisier takeoffs from John Wayne Airport will mean residents of Santa Ana Heights must suffer more noise, or airlines must reduce service, according to a report released Friday.
The report stems from the federal government’s plan to prohibit pilots from cutting their power below 800 feet for safety reasons, effective later this year. Pilots flying the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 now cut their power at 500 feet to meet noise limits at John Wayne Airport, widely acknowledged as the nation’s toughest.
Because of the federal plan, the airport has conducted months of tests with the safer--but noisier--takeoffs.
The environmental impact report released Friday from those tests concludes that either residents of Santa Ana Heights must live with more noise, or airlines must reduce the use of the MD-80. The latter alternative means some airlines, including TWA, would have to curtail service.
The report recommends the first alternative--that homeowners learn to live with it. But it also recommends that the county either insulate their homes or offer to buy them. A buyout or insulation program would affect about 390 homes. (The county previously purchased, and now rents, 21 of those homes.)
However, the report warns that there is no guarantee that the county will have adequate money to buy or insulate homes.
An earlier home-insulation program was halted in 1991 so county officials could assess the long-range cost.
Even if those programs are restarted, as the county proposes, residents won’t be satisfied, said Santa Ana Heights homeowner Edwin C. Hall.
“The acoustical program doesn’t work,” Hall said. “It doesn’t reduce the noise enough. . . . And the home-purchase program has never worked right either,” because the county does not pay enough to allow sellers to buy the same type of house elsewhere.
Airport officials were unavailable for comment Friday.
The impact report is against some measures requested by Newport Beach, including a freeze on the number of McDonnell Douglas MD-80 flights. It argues that such a freeze would discriminate in favor of airlines already using that aircraft at the airport, thus raising legal issues, and would tend to dissuade such “protected” airlines from buying quieter aircraft.
Currently, there are 13 flights a day by MD-80s.
Release of the report starts a 45-day public comment period, with public meetings scheduled in April and May. A final version containing replies will be issued later, before adoption by several county commissions and the Board of Supervisors.
As predicted by airport officials, the impact report shows that the new takeoff procedure will mean less noise for residents who live south of Santa Ana Heights, in Newport Beach. This is because planes will be higher during that portion of the flight path, and thus quieter due to the increased distance to the ground.
The county is considering a runway extension that would allow jetliners to start their takeoff rolls farther north, closer to the San Diego Freeway. This would put jetliners at a higher and thus quieter altitude by the time they are over Santa Ana Heights.
But the environmental impact report also warns that such a costly project, as well as resumption of the insulation and home purchase programs, depends heavily on federal funding.
