Homing In On Noise

Only a small percentage of pilots flying in and out of East Hampton Airport follow the routes asked of them to minimize noise, according to the first phase of a study delivered last Thursday to the East Hampton Town Board. The study, prepared by Young Environmental Sciences and the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, also said that at some point every flight exceeds the maximum acceptable noise standard for some locations.

The East Hampton Town Board has vowed to address aircraft noise, particularly from helicopters, and, with one of the “grant assurances,” which were entered into when the town accepted money from the Federal Aviation Administration, expiring at the end of the year, the town is exploring how airport restrictions might be put in place.

Defining the noise problem and targeting restrictions to address it, said Peter Kirsch, an aviation attorney hired by the town, is key to gaining acceptance of rules the town may impose by the F.A.A., which will retain a degree of authority regardless of whether grant assurances are in place.

According to Les Blomberg of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, who analyzed flight data for 2013, only a small percentage of flights followed routes over Barcelona Point, Jessup’s Neck, and Georgica Pond that were designed to minimize noise. The compliance rate over Jessup’s Neck was less than 2 percent, while the highest compliance rate, on the Georgica route, reached 37 percent.

The town lacks the authority to mandate routes, but it can design noise abatement routes in conjunction with the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, and ask pilots to follow them.

Mr. Blomberg said that information was not available for about two-fifths of last year’s flights, and that aircraft routes were checked for compliance at only one fixed point.

The F.A.A. and the Environmental Protection Agency assess the degree of noise disturbance by averaging daytime and nighttime noise over a year, Mr. Young said. The system can paint an inaccurate picture in places like East Hampton, he said, where use of the airport is seasonal and the ambient sound low. However, he said the federal agencies and the courts were increasingly acknowledging “that noise even at these relatively low levels does have the potential to be disturbing.”

Mr. Blomberg said that noise levels above those in East Hampton Town’s noise ordinance, which limits sound in residential areas to 65 decibels during the day and to 50 decibels at night, were exceeded by aircraft noise consistantly in 2013 on properties within 10 miles of East Hampton Airport.

“There was no operation that did not exceed the noise ordinance at some point for some property,” he said.

The F.A.A.’s threshold of 65 decibels for a noise disturbance has changed, said Mr. Kirsch, “in particular with regard to helicopters on Long Island.” A 45-decibel threshold is now considered potentially problematic. 

Peter Wadsworth, an East Hampton volunteer who has participated in numerous town airport committees, has done an analysis of noise complaints so far this year. Broken down by type of aircraft, it shows more than two complaints for every helicopter flight and for about 80 percent of jet flights. Over all this year, there have been 15,329 complaints about helicopters, most made on Friday and Sunday evenings and Monday mornings. The majority of complaints came from residents of Southampton Town, particularly Noyac.

Mr. Blomberg said how quiet an area is, as well as the nature of the sound, affects how disturbing noise is. In a 2004 report to Congress, he said, the F.A.A. said that low-frequency sound, which can cause rattling and vibration, such as from low-altitude helicopters, is particularly disruptive.

“This is really the old West as far as aircraft are concerned,” said Ken Lipper, an East Hampton resident who served as a New York City deputy mayor in the Ed Koch administration. He urged the town board not to shy away from airport use restrictions for fear of lawsuits. “There is more than ample data to solve this problem,” he said. “I wouldn’t be intimidated by all the nonsense from the special interests that are threatening to sue.”

Mr. Lipper and Peter Wolf, another East Hampton resident and land use expert, had collected 522 signatures supporting a move by the town board to gain local control over the airport and institute use limits.

State Assemblyman Fred. W. Thiele agreed, praising the data as “of monumental use to the town board and the community. I think it’s long overdue and it lends itself to a reasonable and supportable approach to public policy,” he said.

In a draft intended for discussion, Mr. Kirsch wrote possible restrictions could be based on use of the airport according to the time of day, day of the week, or season; by increasing fees during peak periods or for specific types of aircraft, and managing air traffic flow by limiting the number of takeoffs or landings per hour for certain aircraft.

“A restriction that is carefully tailored to a defined local problem is reasonable,” and could be acceptable to the F.A.A. and upheld in the courts, Mr. Kirsch said. “You need to make sure that the solution and the problem are carefully matched,” he told the board.

After last week’s presentation, the Friends of the East Hampton Airport, in a press release, called the noise study “deeply flawed.” The data used was inaccurate, the group said, because it did not take into account a change in the flight tracks that pilots were requested to use, which took place midyear, and said that higher approach and departure altitudes used this year would show “a dramatic reduction in noise levels” over those of 2013.

On the other hand, the Quiet Skies Coalition, in its release, said the noise study provided “a rather stunning confirmation” of what was known all along by those affected by noise — “the noise is terrible, rates of compliance with helicopter abatement routes are abysmally low, and the single-event noise impacts above accepted community standards are in the millions.”

Mr. Kirsch appealed to the public to help the town collect further information. “We need comment from people from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of airport noise,” he said, regarding what the problem is and how it should be addressed. Comments can be sent by email to HTOcomments@ EhamptonNY.gov.

The noise study is posted on the East Hampton Town website, at town.east-hampton.ny.us.

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Note: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of complaints about helicopter noise during 2014.