After about a three-year process and seven months of public input, three recommendations were made by county staff and an outside consultant aimed at reducing noise.
Loudoun County leaders are moving forward with two of three community recommendations to reduce noise issues for people who live near Virginia’s Dulles International Airport.
After about a three-year process and seven months of public input, three recommendations were made by county staff and an outside consultant aimed at reducing noise. However, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors only approved two of the three.
One of the board-approved recommended fixes according to the staff report calls on pilots to maintain a steeper rate of initial climb and delayed flap retraction. The result would be planes climb to 3,000 feet more quickly. The assumption is the higher the aircraft, the lower the level of noise people can hear on the ground.
The second recommendation approved concerns the use of a nighttime noise flight track to minimize sleep disruption. The report says this would require aircraft “to fly runway heading straight from the runway over mostly industrial areas until leaving 3,000 feet.” This procedure would be in effect from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
The third recommendation, which was approved by a community group of stakeholders but not the board, would consolidate the nine standard instrument departure routes planes normally take from Dulles on Runway 30 down to one southwest route and one northwest route. These plane routes have generated most of the noise complaints.
Supervisor Matthew Letourneau, who represents the County’s Dulles District, expressed concerns at this week’s meeting on the proposals about the steeper climb recommendation being a quieter option. “There’s people up here acting with certainty that it does, and there’s just no way that I think we can have that certainty,” he said. “You currently have noise as others have experienced, miles away from the airport today when those aircraft are already at several thousand feet.”
Little River District Supervisor Laura TeKrony said it made sense for the board to approve all three community recommendations. “This provides the most relief for the most residents,” she said.
Ashburn District Supervisor Michael Turner also pushed to approve all three recommendations. “Based on everything I’ve ever learned about airport noise, and about communities objecting to airport noise, this is the purest, sweetest solution I’ve ever heard of,” he said.
A regional group studying the same issue still needs to weigh in on the proposals, then the recommendations go to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and the FAA for a final decision.
Since the community recommendations and the board recommendations are not the same, some board supervisors are concerned it could hurt the chances of approval.
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