File Photo
Sens. Gillibrand and Schumer announced the Quiet Communities Act on Friday.
By Forum Staff
New Senate legislation would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reestablish an Office of Noise Abatement and Control, empowering the EPA to oversee airplane noise issues across the country, including oppressed areas near John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, according to Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand (both D-N.Y.), who announced the measure on Friday.
The Quiet Communities Act would reauthorize the EPA Office of Noise Abatement and Control through Fiscal Year 2023, the senators noted. And it would require the EPA administrator to conduct a study of airport noise and examine the Federal Aviation Administration’s selection of noise-measurement methodologies, health-impact thresholds, and abatement program effectiveness.
Right now, the FAA oversees airplane noise issues; however, Schumer and Gillibrand said that the EPA is better fit to address these matters, as its main focus is to protect human health and the environment.
According to Schumer and Gillibrand, the responsibilities of the new EPA office must include:
• Promoting the development of effective state and local noise control programs.
• Running a national noise control research program.
• Running a national noise environmental assessment program.
• Establishing regional technical assistance centers to assist state and local noise control programs.
• Assessing the effectiveness of the Noise Control Act of 1972.
• Conducting related outreach and educational activities. The office must emphasize noise abatement approaches that rely on local and state activities, market incentives, and coordination with other agencies.
• Using funds made available to the office, the EPA must carry out a study of airport noise.
“Our communities should not have to endure excessive airplane noise that strongly impacts their quality of life, and this legislation will provide additional tools to assist communities by reestablishing an EPA Office of Noise Abatement and Control,” said Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “The federal government must take more proactive steps to address the concerns of New Yorkers who are affected by airplane noise, and this bill will give the EPA the ability to act.”
Schumer and Gillibrand noted that due to budget cuts in 1981, the EPA’s Office of Noise Abatement and Control was dismantled and the FAA was given oversight into all matters regarding aircraft noise pollution.
“Empowering the same agency tasked with protecting our environment to protect our communities from excessive and burdensome aircraft noise while working alongside the FAA makes eminent sense,” Schumer added.
