Don’t Let Eco-Activists Ground the Airport

* The Burbank-Glendale- Pasadena Airport Authority may present the FAA with a Part 161 petition for a mandatory night curfew (10 p.m. to 7 a.m.).

Acting under pressure of the Burbank City Council, the authority is pursuing an unnecessary and illegal course. Some anti-noise activists are determined to overcome the limitations of the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990.

This is a situation where a local government is adversely affecting the national, regional and local air transportation system:

* Where it seeks legal gratification through its police powers.

* Where it forgets that the airport purchase was funded in part through $38 million in federal funds under conditions assuring 24-hour access.

* Where it overlooks the positive strides this authority has made and continues to make to reduce noise impacts on the community.

This planning takes place even though airport attorneys and consultants say it is at worst an exercise in futility, at best a waste of airport dollars to prove to noise complainers that “we care.” In the face of this, however, some authority members are plowing ahead.

A more prudent course is one seeking a steady reduction in noise, day and night, without reducing safety. Compromise and cooperation are solutions to the perceived problem.

The Burbank Airport Authority is being maneuvered into the hands of no-growth eco-activists. Each reduction in Burbank Airport’s utility is moderately damaging. In accumulation they represent an airport death wish. We must not stand by and let this happen.

DON DUFFORD

Burbank