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Flight rerouting to begin Dec. 17
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - December 12, 2007)
With less than a week to go before the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) begins rerouting flights from
Newark
Airport as part of its controversial airspace redesign, critics of the plan continue in their efforts to build opposition.
Last month, the FAA announced that it would begin implementing the redesign, which would reroute 400 planes daily over the
Pascack
Valley , on Dec. 17. The majority of newly fanned out planes are expected to be rerouted to the south and west, and it is unknown what the immediate impact will be on northern
New Jersey .
In response, an anti-FAA rally is scheduled for this Sunday, Dec. 16 by Quiet Rockland, a Rockland County-based group that opposes the airspace redesign plan. This is the third rally of its kind and will be held at the
Suffern
Community Center, 41 Washington Ave., in
Suffern, N.Y. at 11 a.m.
While grass roots opposition continues to grow, Jerome Feder of the New Jersey Coalition Against Aircraft Noise (NJCAAN) recently reported that the Port Authority now endorses the FAA’s plan in its Flight Delay Task Force Report, acknowledging the redesign as a viable way to reduce air traffic delays in the northeast.
This, according to Feder, is a marked change in the views of the Port Authority, which had previously submitted “significant negative comments… to the FAA with regard to the aircraft noise generated by the FAA’s airspace redesign plan.” He said that the NJCAAN will examine the possibility of taking legal action against the Port Authority.
The FAA has estimated that the redesign, once fully implemented by 2011, will reduce delays by 20 percent at major airports in the regions, including Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and La Guardia. Critics, including the NJCAAN, the Pascack Valley Mayor’s Association (PVMA) and various other agencies in New Jersey, Connecticut and
Pennsylvania , have disputed these claims, projecting that the purported benefits will not outweigh the environmental impact of the noise and air pollution associated with the plan.
“I’m disappointed,” said PVMA President and Woodcliff Lake Mayor Joseph LaPaglia of the news of the Port Authority’s support. “I imagine all the
Pascack
Valley mayors will be disappointed when they get wind of this.”
LaPaglia added, however, that the Port Authority’s position will have no impact on the PVMA’s appeal of the FAA’s Environmental Impact Study (EIS).
“I don’t see it changing our position vis-à-vis the appeal. We’re going to move forward,” LaPaglia said. “I would have rather seen the Port Authority also oppose it, but I would have to guess that they are driven more by the financial considerations than the environmental considerations.”
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com
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