Airport Noise A Concern Again; Two major airlines will soon begin serving the city, and residents worry the extra traffic will be disruptive

Residential grumblings about noise at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport are nothing new.

In 1998, a group called "Friends of Noise Abatement" fought to have certain racketreducing measures implemented at the airport. A bill creating a voluntary noise abatement district was passed, and angry calls to elected officials temporarily ceased.

But now, with two major commercial carriers scheduled to begin Santa Fe service in December, noise concerns are surfacing again.

A neighborhood group representing the communities of La Cienega and La Cieneguilla has petitioned city leaders to mitigate the audible impact of air traffic on the area.

However, Jim Montman, the city's aviation division director, said a recently completed noise study showed no need to muffle operations.

The study has been submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration, and while it hasn't been ratified yet, Montman expressed confidence it soon will be.

"We don't have a federally recognized noise problem," he said. "What we do have is a rural area around the airport that is very quiet.

In fact, Montman readily admits the noise from airplanes can be a bother. But he said no one in the community showed up to more than a dozen public meetings held recently on airport issues.

In addition, as a public airport director, Montman has no authority to determine which private airplanes can fly and which can't.

Even with the new flight additions from Delta and American Eagle, which start Dec. 10, Montman said there will still be fewer commercial flights per day than there have been in some previous years.

And, he added, new technology makes the planes relatively quiet for their size, meaning current noise levels aren't as bad as predictions from five years ago said they would be.

"I respect the people's concerns, but so often they make allegations that aren't true," Montman said. "No one trusts us. They all think we're trying to hide something out here."

But La Cienega residents claim the din from airplanes sometimes extends from early morning until late at night, interrupting religious services and making even such activities as talking on the phone and watching TV problematic.

Kathleen McCloud, an artist who has lived in the neighborhood since 1988, said many residents are frustrated with aviation bureaucracy.

"There's a sense of what can we do?" she said. "I think there have been attempts to include people from La Cienega and La Cieneguilla, but it's also sort of a token situation."

McCloud, a former board member of the La Cienega Valley Association, said those who live in the old land grant community understand some noise is inevitable, but want the city to be more forthcoming with information.

"We all have to deal with certain things," she said. "But we are due some respect here."

For the noise study, which was completed this summer, six monitoring stations were set up at locations near the airport. Some proposed sites were actually turned down because they were too far away, Montman said.

The new flights - which include non-stop flights to and from Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Dallas/Fort Worth - were also factored into the study.

Roland Herwig, an FAA spokesman for the Southwest Region that includes New Mexico, said noise studies typically address all air traffic, not just commercial flights.

"Sometimes, there are planes that are louder than commercial planes, such as military planes," Herwig said.

In Santa Fe's case, Montman says loud, World War II-era planes have been flown around the airport by a local pilot for more than 15 years.

The airport has about 220 flights a day from all types of planes, Montman said, and the addition of four to six commercial flights a day won't be as significant from a traffic and noise perspective as some believe.

But that's not to say the complaints will disappear.

As City Councilor Patti Bushee - who sponsored the voluntary abatement district bill about 10 years ago - knows well, noise has been an issue seemingly since the airport's founding in 1941.

Said Bushee, "It's been an ongoing issue for a very long time."