For Immediate Release: April 6, 2006
Contact: Kimberly Allen, (202) 226-8364
Congressman Steve Rothman's Statement on the FAA Airspace Redesign Project
On April 6, a public meeting on the NY/NJ/PA Metropolitan Airspace Redesign Project is taking place in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. Rep. Steve Rothman's (D-NJ) statement follows:
"It is clear from the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ignored New Jersey's main concern for airspace redesign: noise abatement. The Congress directed the FAA to consider both noise abatement and ocean routing in their plan for the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Airspace Redesign. Instead of taking the Congress and New Jerseyans seriously, the FAA decided to make the lives of an estimated 500,000 people more difficult by significantly increasing the amount of noise that already erodes the quality of life for those of us who hear planes flying over our homes and places of work around the clock.
"Northern New Jersey will be impacted the most by the proposed redesign plans. The towns of Rutherford and Fair Lawn, in my district, are expected to be significantly effected with increased noise from the FAA's proposals. In addition, according to the DEIS, the rest of my constituents will get absolutely no reprieve from the level of noise they hear now.
"I do not believe that the FAA cares in any meaningful way about noise abatement or the quality of life of the people living beneath their airspace.
"I reject the DEIS for Airspace Redesign and I will do everything I can to try and force the FAA back to the drawing board for a new approach that seriously addresses noise abatement. For far too long New Jerseyans have suffered because of the deafening noise of planes overhead, therefore I demand that any plan to alter our airspace seriously address the issue of noise. I urge my constituents to join me in making their opposition to the FAA's proposals known by submitting their comments directly to the FAA."
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