Changes to airport noise monitoring

Though the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey implemented the Airport Noise and Operations Monitoring System in the 1980s, the organization will undergo technological improvements in the coming months.

At Monday’s Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC) meeting at Town of Hempstead Town Hall, Edward Knoesel, manager of environmental services for the aviation department for the Port Authority, presented the system changes to the committee members.

Currently, there are 11 permanent noise monitors at John F. Kennedy Airport in Jamaica and 11 portable ones at locations such as Inwood Country Club and the Village of Floral Park Town Hall, which measure environmental noise levels caused by aircraft. All 22 monitors, according to Knoesel, will be replaced and equipped with cellular and wireless connections. “We won’t have connection problems anymore and they will be more reliable,” Knoesel said.

The Port Authority will also design a new website where the public can track flights, airplane altitudes, runway closures and check the environmental noise levels at each noise monitor. The complaint section, Knoesel said, will not change. “The data we’ll provide to the public will be on a daily basis instead of every four days,” he said. “We’ll be able to get information out to the public quicker.”

According to Hezzie Cibere, the TVASNAC representative from Inwood, her community experiences an increase in airplane noise in the summer. “We get killed in Inwood with takeoffs in the summer; it’s unbelievable,” she said. “We also get bombarded with cargo planes late at night.”

Malverne resident Elaine Miller said despite the fact that she’s been attending TVASNAC meetings for the past two years, she said she doesn’t think the Port Authority is taking the public’s concerns into consideration. “They know our complaints and the amount of airplanes flying over our communities and they’ve listened, but have they done anything to fix them? I don’t think they have,” she said. “They look at efficiency for the airport and never mind about the community. We have to work hand in hand.”

Linda Dersch, a Floral Park resident, has seen an increase in the amount of planes flying over her community since she moved there 38 years ago. “There’s a lack of equitable distribution,” she said. “We know we’re going to get planes but the Port Authority is more concerned about efficiency rather than the rotation of the runways.”

Next month, the Port Authority will begin transferring data on the current system. This fall they hope to install the 22 noise monitors and launch their new website in November or December. “We expect this process to be seamless,” Knoesel said.