FAA Is Told to Keep It Quiet Over Grand Canyon

An appeals court Friday directed the Federal Aviation Administration to, in effect, limit the number of helicopters and small airplanes that can fly sightseers over the Grand Canyon.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the FAA to use a stricter definition of “natural quiet” when deciding how much air traffic to allow over the canyon.

Environmentalists predicted that the ruling would limit the overflights that they say interfere with visitors trying to appreciate the grandeur and wildness of the park from the ground or the Colorado River.

The ruling also signaled a new attitude on the part of the federal courts.

“The courts are strongly affirming that quiet is a natural resource of the parks, and it should be protected just like water and wildlife,” said Geoff Barnard, president of the Grand Canyon Trust, one of the environmental groups involved in the lawsuit.

Congress told the FAA and the National Park Service in 1987 to “substantially restore natural quiet” at the canyon, where noise from numerous helicopters and small planes had become all too common.

Despite a couple of rounds of regulations from the FAA since then, the number of annual flights over the canyon has grown from 40,000 to 130,000. Although flights have been restricted from some areas of the park, there are more flights than ever in other areas. The FAA recently capped the number of flights at the current level and established a curfew from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m.

In a lawsuit, several environmental groups challenged two aspects of the FAA’s current rules: averaging noise from flights over a full year, and then establishing an “average day.” That approach allowed a lot of noise in the summer high season, so long as it was offset by relative quiet in the winter. On the busiest summer days, only 19% of the park would be “substantially” quiet.

The court found the concept of an average annual day inconsistent with the goal of the law.

“People do not visit the park on ‘average’ days, nor do they stay long enough to benefit from averaging noise over an entire year,” the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled. “For the typical visitor, who visits the Grand Canyon for just a few days during the peak summer season, the fact that the park is quiet ‘on average’ is cold comfort.”

The court also agreed with the environmental groups that the FAA should factor in noise from commercial air traffic when regulating overflights. At the same time, the court rejected petitions by the United States Air Tour Assn. to weaken the regulations.

Although it was not yet clear what direction the FAA would take, the obvious choices include further restricting the number of flights, increasing the no-fly zones and requiring quieter planes.

Environmentalists and flight operators predicted a big change in the air over the Grand Canyon.

“This will have a huge impact,” Barnard said. “But it is not going to eliminate overflights. It is going to balance overflights with providing a good experience for everyone who is visiting.”

William Perry Pendley, the attorney who represented the operators, said his clients believed the ruling so restricts them that they would not be able to keep their businesses aloft.

“What clients are telling us is that they’re going to be driven out of business,” Pendley said. “They’re not going to be able to provide this opportunity for about a million people a year, mostly elderly and physically challenged, to see the Grand Canyon.”

The decision came on the heels of a recent ruling by the same court requiring the FAA to consider the effect of commercial flight noise on visitors’ experiences in Zion National Park when approving a new airport in St. George, Utah.

“These are two serious victories for natural quiet,” Barnard said. “We live in a very noisy society. Parks are places where people go to listen for silence.”