Long Beach Airport. A Sound Approach. for a Quieter Community

Transcription

1 Long Beach Airport A Sound Approach for a Quieter Community

2 With a focus To a Quieter Community Long Beach Airport is committed to improving your quality of life. Your noise management team in the Noise Compliance Office works closely with the flying public pilots, air carriers and community members like you. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, a noise ordinance that is one of the strongest in the nation, and a residential sound insulation program, your airport is here to serve you. This brochure, published by the Noise Compliance Office, details the steps we continuously take to operate an airport that maintains the highest possible quality of life while providing economic benefits to local communities. Your Long Beach Airport Noise Compliance team: Proactively works with aircraft manufacturers on lowering aircraft noise levels. Proactively seeks cooperation from Airport users by encouraging pilots and aircraft operators to use recommended fly neighborly procedures designed to reduce noise. 1 Proactively contacts aircraft owners and pilots in writing, by phone, by radio, and in person to prevent aircraft noise violations. Aircraft operators are able to benchmark their performance by requesting noise level readings after each arrival and departure.

3 Since 1923, the Airport has been a part of the community. As the community around the Airport has grown, the Airport has worked to diligently address the concerns of its neighbors. Long Beach Airport uses a variety of tools to prevent and reduce noise, chief among them being a multimillion dollar, state-of-the-art system that collects noise data and flight paths on arriving and departing aircraft. Eighteen noise monitors, strategically located in the community, automatically report noise violations within 24 hours. Violators receive written notification with instructions about how to achieve compliance. Multiple violations progress to monetary fines. The Airport also provides a useful tool for community members in monitoring aircraft activity. WebTrak is a user-friendly flight tracking program and complaint database that can be found on the Long Beach Airport website. WebTrak is dynamic, live and interactive. It improves transparency and efficiency by providing direct access to flight and noise data in real time or historical mode. It enables you to search in detail aircraft activity over your community. You can view aircraft type, altitude and direction. WebTrak enables you to conveniently: Register complaints to our Noise Compliance Office 24 hours a day. Create a user account and password for quick reference and access. Locate and identify the source of your aircraft noise complaint. Play back actual and historical flight operations anytime. To maximize your use of WebTrak, please call the Noise Compliance Office at or visit 2

4 g o o d n e i g h b o r s w i t h yo u i n m i n d The City of Long Beach began efforts to control aircraft-related noise through adoption of a noise ordinance more than 30 years ago. These groundbreaking efforts were challenged in the courts and resulted in a reasonable balance between air commerce and the community s noise exposure. The Airport Noise Compatibility Ordinance, passed in 1995, gave Long Beach one of the strictest noise-controlled airports in the United States. It addresses aircraft-related noise at its source and provides local control of airport operational levels. Although Congress passed the Airport Noise and Capacity Act in 1990 giving noise control to the federal government and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the City was able to get its noise ordinance grandfathered. Since then, no other city has succeeded in enacting an airport noise-related ordinance that controls the number of daily commercial flight operations. One important element of the noise ordinance is the goal of having no homes impacted by greater than 65 decibels. At Long Beach Airport, there are five user groups, commercial airlines being one of the five. Each user group is assigned an annual noise budget for takeoff and landing noise. Each time an aircraft takes off or lands at the Airport, a Single Event Noise Equivalent Level (SENEL) is calculated based on the time of flight. The SENEL, measured in decibels (db), is added to a total for the year. Commercial airlines are allowed 41 flights daily and commuter carriers (another user group) are allowed 25 daily flights. As an incentive for airlines to fly quietly, no additional flight can be added unless the City determines that the cumulative noise level based on the previous year s activity would remain below the annual noise budget for that user group. 3

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6 IMPROVING YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE 7 Remote # mi mi Long Beach Airport noise monitor diagram 9 14 CARSON ST mi mi mi mi mi mi 12 16R THE BOEING COMPANY LAKEWOOD BLVD CLARK AVE mi 16 7L L 25R mi mi CHERRY AVE WARDLOW RD R RUNWAY 34L CONTROL TOWER RUNWAY RUNWAY 34R 4267 AIRPORT TERMINAL 25L SKYLINKS GOLF COURSE mi 2 N SPRING ST NOT TO SCALE SAN DIEGO FWY mi mi mi mi mi mi Remote #3 Your Noise Compliance Office is listening 24 hours a day. This is our commitment to you: To protect your quality of life by monitoring aircraft noise and tracking aircraft operations using 18 noise monitors strategically located on and near the Airport. See diagram above. To educate the flying public on preventative and corrective measures instituted to comply with our noise ordinance. To enforce maximum allowable noise limits 24 hours a day and issue progressive monetary fines for repeat violations. To listen and respond in a timely manner to your concerns regarding aircraft operations.

7 Your Noise Compliance Office staff is ready to serve you Front row: Mario Fabila, Randy Jagger. Back row: Eric Sheng, Johnathan Wilson. H o w yo u c a n h e l p u s a c h i e v e a q u i e t e r c o m m u n i t y: Our neighbors turn to us for answers. When you contact us to voice your concern and objection to aircraft operations, you help us gauge and better understand what s occurring in your community. In return, we take appropriate action by verifying the source of your complaint using our sophisticated technology. We then contact the pilot and aircraft owner/operator with information about how to comply with our Noise Ordinance and the consequences of noncompliance. All complaints are logged in a database and are included in our monthly noise reports to the Airport Advisory Commission. We recognize the value of obtaining feedback from you. If you have a complaint regarding aircraft operations or would like our noise management team to look into an event, please contact us in the following ways: Online Automated Hotline lgbarpt@longbeach.gov 6

8 Lo n g B e ac h A i r p o rt s m i s s i o n i s to p r ov i d e e x c e ll e n t c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e. O u r g o a l i s t o e x c e e d o u r c u s t o m e r s e x p e c tat i o n s AT EVER Y OPPORTUNIT Y. Long Beach airport Building a Better Way to Fly Visit your Noise Compliance Office Monday Friday 8 a.m. 4 p.m Donald Douglas Drive, Long Beach, CA Printed on recycled paper. 9/2011