More Officials Petition FAA

Local officials continue to pile on the petitions to the Federal Aviation Administration, begging the agency to promptly relieve the excessive noise resulting from changes to Ronald Reagan National Airport flight paths, lowering them and putting them directly over Georgetown-area neighborhoods and schools.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council chairman Phil Mendelson, Council members Jack Evans (Ward 2) and Mary Cheh (Ward 3), all four At-Large Council Members — Elissa Silverman, Anita Bonds, Vincent Orange and David Grosso — and the DC Fair Skies Coalition have filed an administrative petition, in addition to petitions filed by Attorney General Karl A. Racine, D.C. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton and Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen.

The DC Fair Skies Coalition, made up of members of the Georgetown, Burleith, Foggy Bottom, Foxhall, Colony Hill, Palisades, Canal Road and MacArthur Boulevard communities affected by the altered flight paths, contend that a new terminal procedure, called LAZIR, has seriously increased aircraft noise and caused adverse impacts to the health and well-being of residents near the flight paths, including inability to carry on conversations or speak on the phone, interruptions to sleep during early-morning and late-night flights and noise levels loud enough to cause earaches. Residents are even worried about the impact on property values.

“The switch to the LAZIR approximately two years ago has resulted in a sudden step-change to unbearable of what had been a problem slowly worsening for years,” states resident Erich Fischer in the petition.

Not only does the noise affect D.C. residents, it will have an impact on D.C.’s budget. Mayor Bowser has earmarked $100,000 and the Council’s transportation committee, headed by Council member Cheh, has recommended that an additional $200,000 from the next fiscal year’s budget, approved by the Council, be allocated to the DC Fair Skies Coalition to study and contend with the aircraft noise.