A coalition of civic groups in Queens seeking to stop a project to upgrade and modify a Kennedy Airport runway has filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Manhattan to order the airport operator to conduct a full environmental impact study.
The Eastern Queens Alliance, representing residents of southeast Queens, said the Port Authority's proposal to widen Runway 4L/22R and construct 728 feet of new pavement on the north end would put departing and arriving airplanes closer to homes, schools, churches and businesses.
Jets taking off and landing nearer to where children study and people live, work and worship would undoubtedly bring more noise and air pollution to neighborhoods that are already inundated with them, said the coalition's chairwoman, Barbara E. Brown of Brookville, Queens.
"The noise pollution is already bad, and to tell me a little more noise is not going to impact me is ludicrous," Brown said Tuesday in an interview.
The Port Authority declined to comment Tuesday, but in its reply to the lawsuit filed in September, the agency said its plan to extend Runway 4L/22R to 12,079 feet from its current 11,351 feet and widen it to 200 feet from 150 feet is necessary to meet design standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration. The wider runway would accommodate larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380, a double-decker widebody jet that is currently the world's largest passenger airliner.
The FAA requires runways to have a buffer zone, referred to as runway safety area, to lessen the risk of damage to property and injury to passengers in the event an aircraft overruns, undershoots, or is forced to leave the runway. The Port Authority has until Dec. 31, 2015, to bring Runway 4L/22R into compliance.
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The project would increase the noise level by less than 1 decibel, but the Port Authority said only changes that result in an increase of 1.5 decibels or above would be deemed a "significant" impact.
It's a logarithmic scale.
Enough catering to big business !
Just like the change to the flight patterns over North-Eastern Queens from LGA that affected thousands of Queens residents quality of life once again the N.Y./N.J. Port Authority is crapping all over Queens !
i dunno people make choices everyday, people who buy a home near an airport pay a lot less then people who are not under a flight path..
This will be an expensive project so i would not be opposed to the Port authority buying say 100 homes and renting them out to airline people instead of living in hotels... maybe all the airlines could chip in together...
Considering Queens is about to receive an influx of tourists from all parts of the world to savor the multitude of attractions offered, it needs expanded airport ground facilities for the increased amount of flights carrying the suckers...uh, travelers.
The Next Gen law passed by Congress, with Senator Schumer's support, allows the FAA to bypass environmental impact studies. This lawsuit, unfortunately, will be tossed out.
Be careful what you wish for: A bigger buffer zone could be obtained by eminent domain and condemnation and you'd get whatever the government thinks the house is worth.
I suggest everyone read the petition attached on the right side of Queens Crap to get a detailed explanation of the airplane noise and pollution affecting Queens, Long Island and Brooklyn residents. You do not have to live next to the airport to be affected by the increase in airplane traffic over our New York skies.
The amount of air traffic has increased...Next Gen has allowed planes to fly lower and closer to each other than ever before. We are being bombarded by aircraft every 60 seconds at extremely low altitudes. We all need to fight this.
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