RCAA ON-LINE LIBRARY
Noise
Issues in Brief: Jet-plane noise is a particularly intrusive, annoying type of noise. It causes health problems, has a severe effect on classroom learning, and results in serious depression of property values – which in turn harms individual residents, the social fabric of communities, & the viability of local governments. See sections on Schools, Social Changes, Residential Impacts and Health.
The Port provides little mitigation for noise impacts – most of it too little & too late. The basic two programs are home insulation & buy-outs. The buy-outs do not lessen noise – they simply displace the neighbors. Each round of buy-outs has been followed by expansion or activities or of the campus, or both – leading to a new round of buy-outs.
The Port uses noise-measurement & reporting methods that are chosen to provide serious underestimates of the true noise impacts, & which rely on inaccurate computer modelling, rather than real-world monitoring, or listening to the complaints from the public. Port noise maps are based on annual averages of noise, rather than on individual events, & such maps do not report the full impact of past, present, or future Sea-Tac noise.
Although noise-reduction studies are supposed to be done fairly frequently, the Port vetoes most of the effective recommendations such studies produce.
This section of our library contains materials explaining the basics of noise as experienced by humans (including health effects), various methods to measure & report noise, an outside study on the Port's noise-modelling work, information about recent noise studies at Sea-Tac, background on the home-insulation program, the buy-out program, noise maps.
Documents:
NASA/TM-2003-212649
Relationship between Aircraft Noise Contour Area and Noise Levels at Certification Points, Clemans A. Powell, Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, September 2003 (.pdf, 38 pages)
Report of Port "Fly-Quiet" Committee, August 2003 [Acrobat file - 797kb, 6 pages]
Comments of the Regional Commission on Airport Affairs ("RCAA") on the document titled "Aviation Noise Abatement Policy 2000", issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, and published at 65 Federal Register (no. 136) 43803 - 43825 (14 July 2000). The document is also known as FAA Docket 30109. Submitted October, 2000
Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 (Federal)
Helmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. Dallas, Texas; Raytheon Infrastructure Services, Inc.- -- ;Denver & Philadelphia, in association with Thomas/Lane & Associates, Inc. -- ;SeaTac International Airport Impact Mitigation Study: Initial Assessment and Recommendations, February, 1997. Section 9 -- ;Potential Socio-Economic Impacts and Mitigation. (This section discusses impacts of noise associated with proposed Sea-Tac expansion on local government revenue, residential property values and property tax revenues, effects on community facilities and services, educational impacts of airport noise on children as well as its impacts on School District revenues.)
Suter, Alice H., Ph.D. Presentation to the [PSRC] Expert Arbitration Panel (on behalf of RCAA), Nov. 1994. (Reviews studies and shows airport noise more annoying that other types of noise. Also shows how Port of Seattle Noise Mediation & Nighttime Limitations Program proposes a noise "reduction" that is within the margin error rate of + 2 dB(A.) for the study, potentially not an reduction at all.)
Alice Suter H., Ph.D., Comments on the Port of Seattle's Statement of Position (prepared for submission to the PSRC Expert Arbitration Panel on behalf of RCAA) 30 October 1995. (Shows that an 8-12 dB reduction is more likely to be noticed by people than smaller reductions and Port of Seattle's noise reduction program is inadequate.)
Final
Decision of the PSRC Expert Arbitration
Panel on Phase II Noise Issues. Puget
Sound Regional Council, 1101 Western
Ave. Seattle, WA 98104, March 29, 1996
The Expert arbitration panel in a 2 to 1 vote, rejects the Port of Seattle's
Noise Program.
Flathers, George W., III. A Comparison of FAA Integrated Noise Model Flight Profiles Observed at Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Document DOT/FAA/EE8210. Prepared by the MITRE Corporation for the Office of Environment and Energy, FAA, U.S. Department of Transportation, December 1981 [excerpts]. (This study of actual flight profiles, as opposed to idealized flight profiles used in the FAA 's INM noise model, shows that the flight profiles used to draw noise maps inaccurate for Stage 2 & 3 aircraft, especially heavy weight aircraft.)
Mitigation paper #2 - Bad Noise Contour Predictions, By: Hans Aschenbach M.B.A., Assistant Planner City of Des Moines, January 1993.
RELATIONAL ANOMALIES IN 'A' WEIGHTED AND LINEAR SCALE SOUND LEVEL MEASUREMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH JET AIRCRAFT DEPARTURES , Errol Nelson P.E., September 1996. Study of Noise Levels produced from Jet Aircraft Departures.
65+ DNL Populations Surrounding Nation's Busiest Airports. A reproduction of a table provided by the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Environment and Energy identifying the population surrounding each of the nation's top 30 busiest airports exposed to DNL 65 dB and higher airport noise levels. A comparison of the FAA data shows Sea-Tac airport ranks fifth worst in the nation comparing impacted population versus operations
U.S.
Department of Transportation, Federal
Aviation Administration. Part 150 Noise
Regulations. 14 CFR Part 150;
U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration. Part 161 Noise Regulations. 14 CFR Part 161;
Home | What's the Latest? | Links | Library | Newsletter | About Us
