PROGRESS REPORT: SACRAMENTO CITY PURSUIT OF AIRPORT DEPARTURE RELIEF

With the resumption of air traffic and prevailing offshore winds, west Natomas is again experiencing repetitive low flying flights with greater frequency.  Here’s a progress report on the City’s initiative to abate safety and noise concerns, started earlier this year with the hiring of outside counsel.

 The City continues work on this issue.

 In January, the City took advantage of FAA’s proposed flight procedure changes to request that the FAA conduct full environmental review of the flight paths, including consideration of noise impacts. They also requested the FAA consider a more southern flight path for departures. The County did the same. However, in mid-May, the FAA responded that it will not be conducting full environmental review because it believes it is unnecessary.  Specifically, these Federal aviation authorities stated that the flight procedures identified by the City are “editorial changes due to magnetic variation,” not “new procedures.” Because this does not “fundamentally change existing tracks” it does not have a significant effect on the human environment and, they asserted, therefore no further environmental review is required.

 The FAA also indicated that it is too late to consider alternative departure flight paths as part of the proposed flight path modifications, but that the County may submit the request through the Instrumental Flight Procedure Information Gateway. The County has agreed it will submit a request through the FAA’s IFP Gateway for the FAA to evaluate track dispersion for the NextGen departure procedures implemented in 2015, “with the condition that dispersion does not spread impacts onto community’s area residents not similarly impacted prior to 2015.”  The County also has indicated it is not agreeable to the City and County jointly approaching the FAA to request a more southerly departure path.

 The City is in the process of evaluating its next steps.

 Ellery Kuhn

July 17, 2020

[email protected]