July 2020 MCQSC Update: Montgomery and Arlington Countries Hire Consultant to Assist In Fight Against Airplane Noise

The airspace consulting team hired by Montgomery County and Arlington County, abcx2, will facilitate a virtual meeting on August 17 at 6:30 PM for members of the public impacted by airplane noise from Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).

This email provides preliminary information about the meeting.  More information including details on how to participate will be posted closer to the date.

The MoCo/Arlington contract has four components: (1) airspace analysis, (2) identification and evaluation of alternatives to reduce noise, (3) community engagement, and (4) advocacy and implementation assistance for meetings, e.g. with the FAA and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC). In the upcoming phase of the contract, abcx2  is soliciting input from the public about what criteria they should strive to use for part (2) of the contract: identifying and evaluating alternatives to reduce noise.

After the public meeting, the criteria that have been suggested will be discussed by the North of Airport Subcommittee and the DCA Community Working Group.  Eventually, the abcx2 contract team will begin working with the FAA and ATC to explore new procedures and designs that will hopefully meet the agreed-upon criteria to mitigate noise.  Any new procedure(s) that come out of these discussions will require approval by the full DCA Community Working Group. 

Below are some examples of criteria the consulting team might use and about which they will probably solicit feedback during the meeting.  This is not a comprehensive or hierarchical list.  It is provided here to give MCQSC members an opportunity to think about the issues and begin to consider the feedback they wish to give.

Possible criteria for mitigating noise and designing new flight procedures:

●      Distribute the noise. Avoid having all the flights over the same communities.

●      Return to historical flight path areas. 

●     Center flights over “compatible land uses,” e.g., non-residential areas, industrial or commercial areas, the CIA, wider parts of the Potomac River, etc.

●      Center flights over areas with the least population density or total population

●      Avoid areas with low ambient noise, such as rural areas

●      Others?

Please plan to participate in this important meeting.  We will post more details when they become available.