SFO Runway Noise: Legislation Needs a Push

I called Jackie Speier's office a couple of months ago to ask what was the progress on the various airport noise bills she introduced last congressional session.  Read about them from 2019 here.  When I spoke to the staffer-in-the-know I learned that the bills had expired and needed to be reintroduced for this House session.  That has finally happened.  The press release is here.  Here are some snips pertinent to us close by and more affected by the engine run-up noise than the overhead flight noise:

“For years, constituents have lived with the scourge of airport noise. One sleepless night after another takes a significant toll on an individual’s physical health, mental health and emotional well-being.” Rep. Speier said. “This year we finally received the results of the long-anticipated FAA Neighborhood Environmental Survey, which showed what so many already knew to be true: residents are annoyed by airplane noise levels far lower than the FAA uses for its current minimum standards. 

I can totally agree with that.  Unfortunately these two bit of proposed legislation, while better than nothing, are pretty limited:

Serious Noise Reduction Efforts Act (SNORE) Act, H.R. 4931: Establishes a program at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to noise insulate 200+ homes per year in specific areas or provide financial support to the cities impacted by noise.

Restore Everyone’s Sleep Tonight (REST) Act, H.R. 4929: Allows airports, at their option, to impose a curfew, under specified circumstances, at any time between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

I'm not in favor of giving SFO the option on a curfew.  They (the City of SF) are about the Benjamins so why put in a curfew?  But this one shows a way forward on Burlingame's main problem (and Millbrae and Hillsborough too)

Low-frequency Energetic Acoustics and Vibrations Exasperate (LEAVE) Act, H.R. 4926: As an airplane leaves from an airport, its takeoff generates significant amounts of ground-based low-frequency noise and vibration impacting residents in the vicinity. The bill would lead to the establishment of standards and remedies related to ground-based noise (GBN).

Now the trick is to rally the House of Representatives to actually move these forward and to find sponsors in the Senate to do the same.  Maybe our three congresspersons can take a page out of the Manchin/Sinema playbook?  Time to play some hardball on the infrastructure bills since the Townhall meeting at Skyline college was three years ago.  Yes, three years ago and last night was every bit as loud and unhealthy as 2018.

Comments

[resident]

Speier, Eshoo and Panetta = 3 which is half of Pelosi's "majority". They have a lot of leverage if they have the guts to use it. Thanks for staying on this.

[Nicholas]

Sfo run way noise. I’ve lived here my entire life as baby, child and adult and the airplane noise has always been around. And it never was a big deal. If anything it made my child hood better seeing airplanes fly over head and hearing them fly over my house was awesome. The airport and all its noise and smells are part of the Community. If you don’t like it why would you buy a house next to an airport. People have gotten so soft now a days.

[Juan]

The airport has been there since 1954, if you move to the area after that date, I'm sorry but you knew, and decided to ignore, the facts that involves leaving close to an airport. If you want to do something about it, it's waaayy easier to move yourself.

[Joe]

How nice of a clueless commenter to do a fly-by. Just ignore the late-night traffic growth since 1954 (that is all of it--there were no 1:30 am flights in 1954) and the engine maintenance run-ups at 3am out in the corral. Forget the new international terminal and the new hotel reflecting noise back into the neighborhoods. If none of that bothers you, good for you. Plenty of people disagree.

[Patrick]

Edited out: Thanks for the anti-White racist comment, Patrick. Good to know racists come in all colors.

[Joe]

It sounds like the SFO Roundtable is finally making some noise at the FAA...............

SFO Roundtable Submission to Federal Register FAA Request for Comments on the Civil Aviation Noise Policy Review

Good Day:

On June 7, 2023 at a regular public meeting, the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable after discussion, public input and deliberation, voted unanimously to approve and submit the linked documents to the Federal Aviation Administration in response to their request for comment to the FAA Noise Policy Review.

The attached Roundtable Comments cover a wide range of issues relating to how the FAA should manage noise to residents caused by aircraft. The results of the fairly recent FAA Neighborhood Environmental Survey (NES) cast doubt on the appropriateness of the decades long FAA policy standards of protecting residents affected by airplane noise. And numerous recent medical studies have made clear the very real deleterious health effects of noise and sleep disruption to residents, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease, impaired control of blood glucose, and increased inflammation, as well as adversely affecting children’s academic learning.
Health impacts to residents must be addressed by the FAA with bold new action to ensure respect for the needs of all stakeholders – residents as well as airlines.

The Roundtable documents are public; the Roundtable gives permission to share them as you choose. The FAA will continue to accept input on their Noise Policy Review through the Federal Register with an extended deadline of September 29, 2023.

If you have any questions, please contact the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable Coordinator at [email protected].

Respectfully,

Sam Hindi
Chairman, SFO Airport Community Roundtable
Councilmember, Foster City

Al Royse
Vice-Chairman, SFO Airport Community Roundtable
Councilmember, Town of Hillsborough

[Cassandra]

The noise is so obviously a health hazard- especially at night.

And it affects the poorer neighborhoods around the runways. Some politicians can use all the pc alphabet to make things right to the people being hurt by this noise- especially at night.

Also, Secretary of State Blinken just returned from China hoping to increase air travel connections- those are the 3 am flights that roar off now to Taipei.

Better get on this.

[Peter Garrison]

Senator Scott Wiener!

[Ram Emanual]

That Wiener is a real a-hole. Now he wants to gut the California Coastal Commission so developers can build high-density on the whole coast. What an idiot.

[Peter Garrison]

But he can be our “cretin utile.”

[Timothy]

Be glad you don't live near one of these airports:

World’s top 10 busiest airports for passenger traffic in 2022
1. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Georgia (ATL): 93.7 million passengers; up 23.8% from 2021

2. Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas (DFW): 73.4 million passengers; up 17.5% from 2021

3. Denver, Colorado (DEN): 69.3 million passengers; up 17.8% from 2021

4. Chicago O’Hare, Illinois (ORD): 68.3 million passengers; up 26.5% from 2021

5. Dubai, United Arab Emirates (DXB): 66.1 million passengers; up 127% from 2021

6. Los Angeles, California (LAX): 65.9 million passengers; up 37.3% from 2021

7. Istanbul, Turkey (IST): 64.3 million passengers; up 73.8% from 2021

8. London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR): 61.6 million passengers; up 217.7% from 2021

9. Delhi, India (DEL): 59.5 million passengers; up 60.2% from 2021

10. Paris Charles de Gaulle, France (CDG): 57.5 million passengers; up 119.4% from 2021

[Handle Bard]

I like Denver as the exemplary model. Stapleton was very space limited and close in town so they moved the new DIA out on the high plains. That is exactly what we should be doing with SFO. Build a short high-speed rail out to the distant east bay and grow as much as they like. The recent near misses at SFO are about more than just tower error or pilot error.