The El Toro Noise Demonstration

* Re “$3-Million Test of Noise at El Toro OKd,” Jan. 13:

Please set the record straight: The Board of Supervisors did not approve the expenditure of $3 million for the proposed flight demonstration.

We authorized county staff to negotiate with the air carriers and airline manufacturers to secure aircraft for the demonstration and return to the board in 60 days. The price tag for the demonstration is not yet known.

The board approved the proposed flight demonstrations for the future airport at El Toro for one reason and one reason alone: We believe it is our duty to be responsive to the concerns of our residents. We know that there is a great deal of anxiety in the community about potential noise from the airport (most of it unwarranted, though understandable) and we want to provide residents with a snapshot of what it will be like living under the flight path.

While the demonstrations may not provide a wealth of scientific data, as your article correctly states, they will not be “useless.” To the contrary, flight demonstrations, using a range of planes expected to fly in and out of El Toro, provide the only practical way to answer the question we are so frequently asked, namely, “How loud will planes be as they fly over my home?”

The truth about noise is this: The vast majority of Orange County’s 2.6 million residents--north and south--will experience little or no noise from the airport.

For those who live under the flight paths, overall noise will diminish compared with military operations, simply because commercial jets are much quieter than military jets.

And because aircraft will follow military flight paths, most of the noise will be absorbed in the existing 14,000-acre buffer zone where development has been limited for years or has not occurred at all.

To put the noise issue into perspective, a recent report, using internationally accepted scientific methodologies, showed that there will be no homes and no schools in the state-defined noise impact area for El Toro in 2020.

By comparison, there are 31,335 homes, 84,054 people and 36 schools in the Los Angeles International Airport noise impact area; 13,620 homes, 31,800 people and 28 schools in the Seattle Tacoma International Airport noise impact area; and 120 homes and 300 people in the current John Wayne Airport noise impact area.

But we know that it is one thing to read scientific reports; it’s another thing to experience the sound of planes overhead. That’s why we approved the demonstrations.

A final comment: It is curious indeed that the airport opponents do not want the demonstrations to occur. Are they afraid that their fear-mongering literature about loud noise will prove to be “sound and fury, signifying nothing”?

CHARLES V. SMITH

Orange County supervisor

1st District

JAMES SILVA

Orange County supervisor

2nd District

* I would like to offer the Board of Supervisors of Orange County an opportunity to save the county $3 million. This was given as the cost to determine if commercial jets make noise.

I work in an office in an industrial park next to John Wayne Airport. Let me assure the board that commercial jets do indeed make a lot of noise on takeoff and landing. Many other people who work in the area will back me up on this one.

With a county emerging from a bankruptcy, I’m sure the board will appreciate my help.

MARY ANN CREASON

Silverado Canyon

* Regarding the proposed $3-million “demo flight,” it is very clear this is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

In the Board of Supervisors meeting on Jan. 12, Courtney Wiercioch, the El Toro project manager, specifically told the board that the demonstration flight would have no scientific value at all.

Although I challenge Wiercioch on a lot of the planning process, I agree with her on this one. It makes no sense at all and only wastes time and money.

How can one believe that flying 20 to 25 operations a day, split between three runways, comes anywhere near the impact of a proposed international airport that could have up to 825 commercial flight operations per day?

The disingenuous comments by Supervisors Charles V. Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad that they feel that it will give us an idea of what an international airport is is a signal that they just don’t know what the heck they are doing.

With county staff making it very clear to the board that the demonstration will not serve any scientific value, one must ask what are the real motives of the supervisors in proceeding with such a public relations gimmick.

DAVE KIRKEY

Coto de Caza