Van Hollen, Maryland Leaders Urge FAA to Measure Noise Impacts from Altered DCA Air Traffic Patterns

U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, Congressmen John Delaney and Jamie Raskin, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, and Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner have written to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requesting that the agency measure noise levels from incoming and departing flights from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). The officials request a timeline by June 5, 2017 of its review of the impact of changes made to air traffic patterns in 2015.

"Our constituents daily suffer the disruptive and unhealthy effects of the implementation of the flight procedure changes...We look forward to your prompt attention to our request," the leaders wrote.

Federal and local officials have been working with concerned community members for over a year to find a resolution to the issue, writing to the FAA on several occasions.

The full text of the letter is below.

Dear Administrator Huerta:

We have received many emails and phone calls from our constituents in Montgomery County about the significant increase in aircraft traffic and noise arising from the 2015 implementation of the Washington, D.C. Optimization of Airspace and Procedures in the Metroplex (DC OAPM) and from changes to the approach paths for incoming aircraft at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

We request that the FAA conduct a thorough written review of the noise levels pre- and post-implementation of the DC OAPM and the impact of approach procedure changes undertaken in 2015. The review should include all documents related to the environmental review conducted prior to implementing changes to Amendment 5 of the River Visual RWY 19 approach procedure.

We ask that this review commence without further delay and that you provide us a timeline for the review no later than June 5, 2017.

Our constituents daily suffer the disruptive and unhealthy effects of the implementation of the flight procedure changes identified above. We look forward to your prompt attention to our request.