Third in a series. 

Re: “City Deadly Serious About FAA Fight”

In plain language, Mayor Jim Clarke described the reason for the city of Culver City’s promised lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration:

“It’s the noise of planes flying at a lower altitude, then descending, and when they do, it creates noise when they put their flaps out.”

The FAA contends the noise is significantly less than what has been charged by hundreds of residents.

Noise ceilings allowed in California are lower than for the East Coast.

“Using the standard required in California, the noise levels would be increased by 5 decibels over what the FAA says it is,” according to Mr. Clarke.

“Another aspect of the case is that the FAA gave scant consideration to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions in their environmental assessment.

“We do not feel the FAA adequately described the air quality and air pollution” triggered by low-flying aircraft.

Mayor Clarke was asked about the FAA’s motivation for characterizing the noise level as lower than it allegedly is.

“The FAA is under a great amount of pressure from the Congress, which has wanted them to implement changes faster than they are,” he said.

“The airline industry also is interested in having these changes done because one aspect of the law is fuel efficiency. If they move to a satellite base, then there is more precision to this. They will be able to put more planes in the air.”

(To be continued)