Airport noise monitors called costly, useless at PBI
All day, every day, for more than two decades, monitors positioned around Palm Beach International Airport have recorded airplane noise.
The 11 monitors, scattered in neighborhoods on all sides of the airport, are the only real measurement of the amount of noise created each time an airplane takes off or lands. They transmit the information back to the airport's noise abatement office.
But the data they collect is basically useless, airport managers say.
Regardless of how loud an airplane is, airport managers can't stop it from flying. And noise recorded by the monitors can't be used to get federal money to buy sound insulation for nearby homes or purchase property in the flight path.
Airport Manager Bruce Pelly is recommending county commissioners eliminate the noise monitoring system. An advisory committee created to make recommendations on airport noise issues should also be dismantled, he said.
The cuts would save the airport about $98,000 a year, he said.
"The noise monitors are kind of like a rotary phone," Pelly said. "The technology has outlived its usefulness."
But at least one county commissioner opposes the plan. Paulette Burdick, whose district includes the airport, said both the monitors and the committee "offer a vehicle" for residents with noise complaints.
"Absolutely, both the committee and the noise monitors should remain, so that all communities have a place that they can go to voice their concerns and have them addressed," she said.
The noise monitors were installed in the 1980s to track aircraft. Airport managers used the data and flight logs in the control tower to link noise complaints to a particular airplane.
It has become difficult to find parts to repair the monitors and is "no longer practical" to maintain the system, Pelly said.
And he contends that the Citizens Committee on Airport Noise -- created in 1982 as a sounding board for complaints and to consider ways to reduce noise around the airport -- no longer serves a purpose. Five of the committee's 13 seats are vacant and it hasn't had a quorum since February, airport managers said.
Meanwhile the airport spends about $57,700 a year to provide staff and consultants for the committee.
One big reason the committee and monitors are no longer needed is that noisy jets, classified as Stage 2 aircraft, have been phased out for use by commercial airlines. The Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 required that all new aircraft meet quieter, Stage 3, noise levels. That legislation also removed local governments' ability to block specific types of planes from using their airports, Pelly said.
Previously, to curb complaints, the owners of Stage 2 jets were fined $2,600 for taking off and $260 for landing between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Pelly doesn't argue that the airport creates noise. "We are willing to sign an affidavit," Pelly said. "Yes, airplanes make noise."
But he says there is simply no reason to continue to track it. The Federal Aviation Administration does not require airports to have noise monitors, he noted.
Nearby residents argue that monitoring is still needed, though.
"Obviously, if you aren't measuring anything, there is no problem," said Tom Conboy, a resident of the Poinciana Park neighborhood. "To me, it is a fact that there is still airport noise. Airplanes still create noise. They still have airplanes at the airport. It is only appropriate to measure it."
Nancy Pullum, a resident of West Palm Beach's El Cid neighborhood and member of the advisory board, defends its existence as a "clearing house" for residents with noise complaints. "There are lots of organizations that have advisory boards to give citizens active participation in a process," Pullum said. "That is what CCAN does."
Pullum points to a recent complaint the board received about helicopter noise near PBIA. By working with the air traffic control tower and the airport, the committee was able to help divert noise away from residential areas.
The committee is slated to discuss Pelly's recommendations on Aug. 18.