Waiting for the technical advisory committee

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It’s been over five months since the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that Environmental Sciences Associates was awarded an $8 million contract to conduct a Federal Part 150 study to study aircraft noise patterns and evaluate the potential to reduce noise exposure in the vicinity of John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports. That’s a fact. 

What isn’t fact yet are the details surrounding the formulation of a technical advisory committee, which will ultimately make recommendations as to the parameters of the Part 150 Study, and act as a translator of technical Part 150 jargon into layman’s terms. 

According to an emailed statement from Ed Knoesel, manager for aviation environmental programs at the Port Authority, “The Technical Advisory Committees (TAC) for the Part 150 Studies are in the final stages of creation. The role of the TACs is to provide direct input to the studies by having appointed and committed representation from all affected airport stakeholders. The TACs will be a reasonable size of no more than two dozen members to enable efficient meetings and dialogue.  TAC membership will generally consist of: PANYNJ Noise Office staff,  Airport Operations and Management staff, FAA Air Traffic Control Tower, FAA Airports District Office, FAA Flight Standards District Office, Airlines (Cargo and Passenger Air Carrier), Fixed Base Operators, Community Roundtable Appointees, local city and county officials adjacent to the airport boundaries; and  aircraft user groups and trade organizations such as the Teterboro Users Group, National Business Aviation Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, etc.). Each airport will have a unique TAC, although some membership may overlap. The opinions, advice, and suggestions made by TAC members are non-binding and are advisory in nature as the Port Authority has the sole discretion to approve or reject recommendations made from these committees.”

This seems to differ from the opinion of lawyer Janet Mceneaney, who is president of Queens Quiet Skies and a co-chair of the coordinating committee of the Community Roundtable, who said nothing about the technical advisory committee will be decided until the coordinating committee gives the go-ahead. “Until the coordinating committee makes a decision about the technical advisory committee, nothing is going to happen,” she said. “We take suggestions from roundtable members and public, but none of this is really decided yet.” Mceneaney, who said her statements are her own and do not represent committee sentiment, said the coordinating committee has not had its first meeting yet, and hasn’t discussed the topic. The five members of the coordinating committee, in addition to Mceneaney, include Co-chair Barbara Brown, from the Eastern Queens Alliance, vice chair Kendall Lampkin of TVASNAC, Lauren Schreiber, who represents Queens Community Board 7, and  secretary is Rich Hellenbrecht, a representative from Queens Community Board 13. Mceneaney added that she personally would prefer that the coordinating committee hire a consultant who has direct experience with previous Part 150 studies in order to get the maximum benefit.  She added that the FAA, not the Port Authority, had paid for this consultant when the city of Boston conducted its own Part 150 study.  

When Len Schaier, a retired engineer from Port Washington and president of QuietSkies.net,  was asked about the technical advisory committee, he expressed hopes that it would start up in the next month or so. “I sent in specific recommendations for things I would like to see covered in the noise analysis,” he said. If I was on that committee, I would argue that those parameters that those be measured and analysis be done in a certain way,” said Schaier. He added that the general public could always come to a roundtable meeting and would be briefed.

State Assemblyman Ed Ra told the Herald recently that he reached out to the Port Authority several times in the past about the importance of creating presentations to the general public explaining the Part 150 study because many people do not fully understand it or its function. “I’d asked the Port Authority last fall to  at least do one in Hempstead, and one on the south shore — and let people understand. I spoke to them again about three weeks ago, and they indicated that they are willing to do something like that in the near future. Ra said an essential and required part of doing the study is going out to the communities and providing  that information. 

Ra said Schaier had explained many technical items to him in layman’s terms, and that Schaier would be a great addition to the committee. Schaier said he had received recommendations to be appointed to the committee from several politicians, including Assemblywoman Michelle E. Schimel, Asseemblyman Charles Lavine and North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judy Bosworth.

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