Plane noise intensity is diluted in tabulations

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Lately, it seems, the plane noise in Malverne has been even more bothersome than usual.

When Malverne held its 9/11 candlelight vigil last week, it was in the middle of a six-hour period in which dozens of planes roared overhead, making it almost impossible to hear Deputy Mayor Patricia Fitzpatrick during the ceremony. Malvernite Elaine Miller, who keeps track of planes flying over the village, said that from Sept. 1-8, 270 to 300 planes had flown over her house each day. “On Sept. 8, they sent us another 60 planes on top of that,” she said. “It was a solid 14 to 17 hours per day of plane noise.”

Despite what appears to be an increase in air traffic and noise, statistics from Malverne’s plane noise monitor show that the day-night average sound level was only 55.9 decibels from January through August 2016, below what the Federal Aviation Administration defines as significant noise, an average of 65 decibels.

Yet many Malvernites are complaining about the noise, and Miller, who started the activist group PlaneSense for Long Island, has more than 2,000 people following her efforts on social media.

The answer lies, quite simply, in how the noise numbers are tabulated. Thunderous noise levels are diluted because the calculations also include times of the day when there is no plane noise at all.

“They’re averaging things out over a year’s time, so everything’s watered down,” said Malverne resident Larry Hoppenhauer, Malverne’s representative on the Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee. “The six hours we were getting those flights going overhead on Sept. 11 — ranging in the 65- to 75-decibel range — will get diluted when they average it out yearly.”

It’s a situation that Len Schaier, president of Quiet Skies — an organization that seeks to simplify access to aircraft noise research and supports noise mitigation efforts — with the help of several politicians, is trying to change.

Schaier, who has a goal of reducing the day-night average threshold from 65 to 55 DNL, points to a study conducted by Harvard and Boston universities — the first study to use the FAA’s day-night-average system to gauge noise impact on the population. “They found that when the number is 55 or higher, people were more likely to have cardiovascular disease,” said Schaier.

The study, which analyzed noise at 89 U.S. airports and hospitalizations among approximately 6 million study participants, found that older people exposed to aircraft noise at high levels may face an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Study researchers speculated that the noise could be linked to stress reactions and increased blood pressure — two risk factors for cardiovascular problems.

Schaier, who sits on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Technical Advisory Committees for both LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, noted that Congress recently passed a reauthorization bill for the FAA that did not include any mention of the efforts to reduce aircraft noise. He added, however, that a second part of the bill, which must be signed into law by next September, does address community aircraft noise — but needs the public’s support. “We must make sure those running for office, and those already in office, do not forget that many of us are still hurt by the noise and pollution,” Schaier wrote in an email.

Earlier this year, U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand sent a joint letter to Michael P. Huerta, administrator of the FAA, requesting more public meetings to address changing flight procedures or the implementation of new ones, and the updating of noise modeling metrics. The FAA said in response that it had formed a 28-member NextGen Advisory Committee “to provide advice on policy-level issues facing the aviation community in implementing NextGen” — a new airspace system that enables planes to fly closer together, take more direct routes and avoid delays caused by planes waiting for open runways.

The NextGen Advisory Committee consists, however, of one environmental representative — Brad Pierce, president of NOISE, a national, community-based association of local elected officials — and 27 air industry executives.

In August, Schumer and Gillibrand announced $2.9 million in runway upgrades at JFK that they said would widen and strengthen the runways and help “reduce the time a plane spends on the ground.”

Chris McGrath, who is running to unseat State Senator Todd Kaminsky in the Senate’s 9th District in November, said in a written statement that if elected, he will “do what no other senator who has represented this area has done — immediately call for a meeting with the FAA and work to once and for all ensure that the people of Malverne are no longer being treated unfairly due to the detrimental effects that airplane noise pollution is having on their quality of life.”

Kaminsky’s office reported that he had met with Port Authority officials on Aug. 24 and urged them to do more, and that he would be writing a letter to the FAA, requesting that the day-night average limit on aircraft noise be reduced to 55 decibels. “I will continue to advocate for quieter skies, and will urge our federal partners to update antiquated policies and standards,” Kaminsky said in a statement.

In the meantime, Elaine Miller continues to press Port Authority and FAA officials for answers. “Why have planes been overflying Malverne excessively for such an extended period of time?” and “Why has there not been a rotation of runways?” are among the questions she has asked Paul Laude, an FAA spokesman. To date, she has not received a response.