Malvernites Urge Village Board to Fight Noisy Flights, NextGen

Despite the fact that Federal Aviation Administration and Port Authority officials of the Town Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC), local residents rattled by the volume of planes flying over their homes are not ready to abandon their cause.

"I know this is going to be a very difficult fight. We can't do this alone...but if we band together, we can defeat the giant," Malvernite Elaine Miller told the Malverne village board at its March 7 meeting.

Miller showed village officials and Patch several photographs she took outside of her home recently, which she says depict planes flying at low-altitudes and releasing fuel.  "They look like they are 100 feet over my home," she said, adding, "I am in contact with many others in Malverne who are saying this noise and the airplanes really has been affecting their lives."

And they are not alone. About 150 Nassau County residents, including several from Malverne,o express their concerns to officials from the FAA and Port Authority, but both agencies decided not to send representatives to this particular TVASNAC meeting afterall. 

In a prepared statement, FAA officials said, "We have a long working relationship with TVASNAC, and the FAA has regularly attended its monthly meetings. We expect to do so in the future when we have adequate time to prepare materials in response to meeting agendas and to make sure that the right FAA personnel are available to attend the meeting."

Larry Hoppenhauer, the TVASNAC representative for the village of Malverne, said it's "significant" that the officials skipped this meeting. He explained that right now the FAA is seeking feedback from the public regarding NextGen, a system that could revolutionize the way planes travel through our skies. Replacing the old radar-tracking systems with this new technology is expected to make the airline industry more efficient.

For instance, under the current system, planes must maintain a minimum of five miles between them when flying, but that distance "will be reduced to three," under NextGen because the technology is more accurate, Hoppenhauer said. "One can understand that if you are going to create that efficiency there will be an increase in capacity," he added.

The new technology is also expected to keep planes traveling in straight paths, similar to lanes on a highway, Hoppenhauer explained, so residents living directly under these "lanes" (their locations have yet to be determined) could notice a dramatic increase the noise and amount of flights passing over their homes. 

At this time, the FAA could implement this technology without conducting any environmental impact studies, because it's being considered merely "an efficiency move," he added.

If the public had the opportunity to grill officials on NextGen at the February meeting, Hoppenhauer says there's a good chance "it might have solicited a lot more responses in comments to the FAA." (The deadline to submit feedback on NextGen was March 7, but it has since been extended. You can access the online form to submit comments, sign petitions and learn more about efforts to stop the plane noise by visiting quietskies.net or quietovergc.com.)

Miller said the implementation of NextGen without any studies of its impact on residents is just one example of the "unilateral decisions" being made by the FAA and Port Authority.

"They have gone on for many, many years without answering to any legislative body," she said, urging the village board to change this. "You are the elected officials. You are the people who will make the difference for us. You will be the voices of the people. When they hear the voices of the Nassau residents and the elected officials, perhaps they will open their ears."

Malverne Trustee Michael Bailey, who was also present at the February TVASNAC meeting, responded to Miller's pleas by saying the village board did recently meet with Sen. Dean Skelos and NYS Assemblymen Brian Curran and Edward Ra to address the air traffic concerns, including the recent ' incident.

"You are right," Bailey told her. "It's concerted effort that's needed to make sure that people who are in a position of power in these agencies respond to our voices. Up to now their approach has been, 'It's in your mind, it's not real,' and they've gotten away with ignoring it."

The next TVASNAC meeting will be held on March 26 at 7:30 p.m. inside Lawrence Village Hall located at 196 Central Avenue, Lawrence.