I wanted to provide an update on the FAA’s consideration of the “south flow fix” – the proposal to have aircraft departing to the south from National Airport stay over the river longer before turning, thereby diminishing the decibel level to affected neighborhoods.

Like airport area communities all over the country, Northern Virginia has seen a spike in airplane noise, attributed to an increase in airport operations and the implementation of new flight paths mandated by the FAA through the NextGen program.

The FAA held a two-hour congressional briefing earlier this week on the D.C. Metroplex redesign. (That refers to the FAA’s effort to respond to neighborhood concerns throughout the greater DC region, and to consider various new flight maps for the region’s three airports – BWI, Dulles, and National Airport.) Three members of my staff attended the briefing. Included in the briefing was an update on the status of the Reagan National Community Noise Working Group’s August 11, 2016 recommendation to keep planes departing to the south of DCA centered over the Potomac River and to move planes farther down the Potomac before turning east or west over land. We learned that the FAA plans to convene an internal “technical working group” to evaluate this and other redesign proposals affecting the D.C. Metroplex.

The technical working group is a new approach and means that the FAA will not meet the 12-to-18 month timetable that it announced at the meeting I convened at National Airport last June.  I know that this is not welcome news, and I am deeply frustrated by this greater delay on the part of the FAA. However, at my request, the technical working group will prioritize the south flow recommendation over any other recommendations in the D.C. Metroplex. FAA officials said at this week’s meeting that they hope to begin the community engagement process in October or November of this year, which will include an open comment period and workshops in affected communities. Should the FAA move forward with the proposed change, south flow communities should anticipate an additional 15-to-21 months from this autumn before the new departure path is finalized.

NextGen flight path changes at DCA were implemented without public notice or comment. The FAA has since committed to a robust public engagement process that will include the public in preliminary activities. This is something we and others have been asking the FAA to do and is welcome news, even as the delay in any possible implementation is disturbing. Simultaneously, I remain hopeful that the FAA will lower the definition of acceptable noise pollution from the current 65 decibel Day-Night Average Sound Level (DNL) to a more reasonable 55 decibel DNL.  The current standard was adopted in 1976 and has not been updated. Please refer to this storyboard on my website to learn more about efforts to date with the FAA.

I commit to continuing to work with constituents and government partners as we try to mitigate the effects of airplane noise on our community and residents.

Please forward this to others who you think might be interested.