City of Pacifica Position Statements
Regarding Airport Aircraft Noise Over Pacifica
January 2018
On January 22, 2018, the City Council of Pacifica adopted the following position statements and authorized the Mayor, individual City Council members, as well as the City Manager, to communicate these position statements broadly and to provide comment letters to appropriate recipients advocating and working towards these positions.
Background
• SFO and Oakland aircraft arrivals and departures create significant noise and health impacts to Pacifica residents and their quality of life;
• Recognizing these impacts, the City of Pacifica was one of the first members of the SFO Community Airport Roundtable (SFO-RT) and has been an active dues-paying participant since its inception in 1981, collaboratively working toward the SFO-RT's purpose "to develop, evaluate, and implement reasonable and feasible policies, procedures, and mitigation actions that will further reduce the impacts of aircraft noise in neighborhoods and communities in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties" (SFO-RT MOU);
• Despite the SFO-RT's efforts, aircraft overflight noise impacting the health and quality of life of Pacifica residents has worsened in recent years due to implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen);
• The City Council appreciates recent Federal Aviation Administration and SFO acknowledgments of potential steps toward improvements to impacts created by NextGen, due to the hard work of Congresswoman Speier and her Bay Area Congressional colleagues as well as the SFO-RT, however the City Council is dismayed by the FAA's slow timeline for improvements and its ongoing dismissal of the severity of the noise and health impacts to Pacifica residents.
Flight Departure Routes
• Increased overflight noise in Pacifica is a result of more flights out of SFO due to NextGen flight path changes, general economic factors, and likely increased departures to Asia, Southern California, Mexico, Central America, as well as increased southbound departures from Oakland airport;
• The above factors have been compounded by NextGen changes that increased flights over Pacifica on the SSTIK departure route and the near elimination of SFO Offshore and Oakland Coast departure routes, and additionally compounded by FAA safety regulations that have decreased use of the TRUNKN 28 route (formerly known as the Shoreline departure route) and decreased use of Opposite Direction Operations on runways 10/28; The City Council requests departure route changes that result in higher altitude flights over Pacifica and more flights over the ocean or bay than over Pacifica. Specifically, the City Council urges expedited adoption and implementation of the Southbound transition for SFO NIITE and OAK HUSSH nighttime departures, as well as vectoring at night to mirror NIITE and HUSSH while awaiting formal procedure;
• The City Council requests the Federal Aviation Administration and SFO to expeditiously evaluate further flight path changes such as creating an RNAV overlay departure (satellite-based procedure) for the OFFSHORE route and moving waypoints to move SSTIK route flights over the ocean instead of over Pacifica
2 Flight & Noise Data/Studies
• There is only one permanent noise monitor in Pacifica, located in the Fairmont neighborhood (northern Pacifica). However, NextGen changes have created noise impacts in central and southern Pacifica. The City Council requests the immediate installation of two additional permanent noise monitors, one in central Pacifica, and one in southern Pacifica, with quarterly noise reports from all three monitors submitted to the City; • The City Council requests cooperation from, and prompt release of flight and noise data, from the Federal Aviation Administration and SFO upon request; • The City Council objects to the CNEL noise averaging methodology, as it does not reflect the practical impact of short duration noise that harms the health and quality of life of Pacifica residents. The City supports methodology changes to evaluating noise impacts more accurately; Health, Economic, and Environmental Impacts from Noise & Noise Impact Mitigation • The City Council supports efforts to act upon the results of studies that establish the negative health impacts from airplane noise and to hold source industries and entities accountable for these impacts;
• The City Council supports efforts to study and establish the negative economic impacts to property values that result from airplane noise and to hold source industries and entities accountable for these impacts;
• The Federal Aviation Administration did not sufficiently evaluate the noise and emissions impacts to the local, state, and federal open space lands in and surrounding Pacifica, and the humans as well as wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, that utilize these lands.
The City Council supports additional efforts to study these impacts and to hold source industries and entities accountable;
• The City Council supports improvements and expansion of SFO's noise insulation program warranted by NextGen noise impact changes, especially in regards to residences in Pacifica subject to increased or new noise impacts.
SFO Roundtable and Inter-Governmental Collaboration
• The City Council is committed to continuing to work collaboratively as part of the SFO-RT; • The City Council encourages the SFO-RT to prioritize public outreach and education to residents of its member agencies in its annual workplan;
• The City Council supports efforts to create and enhance inter-governmental collaboration regarding the noise and health impacts from airports across the region, state, and country and the role that organizations such as the League of California Cities and the National League of Cities may play in pushing the FAA to mitigate NextGen noise and health impacts.
FAA Mandate
• The FAA's mandated priorities of Safety and Efficiency need to be expanded to include priority for Noise and Health impacts over Efficiency, supported by the necessary strategies, methodologies, technologies and equipment to do so. The City Council supports efforts to update Congress' mandate to the FAA accordingly.