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Ocean Routing

NJCAAN Recent Successes

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Summary of NJCAAN's Recent Successes

  • NJCAAN, a wholly volunteer organization, has grown to represent 18 counties and over 300 municipalities in New Jersey through its over 7000 household member database.

  • A "tidal wave" of endorsements for using the ocean to reduce aircraft noise includes Governor McGreevey, former Governor Whitman, former Acting Governor DiFrancesco, former Governor Florio, Senators Torricelli and Corzine, former Senator Lautenberg, Representatives Roukema, Frelinghuysen, Pallone, Pascrell, Rothman, Holt, and Ferguson.

    Eight Freeholder Boards including Bergen, Essex, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, and Union have endorsed Ocean Routing and live testing in letters and resolutions.

    Countless state legislative district officials and local municipal governments have also demanded Ocean Routing to reduce noise. A partial list of endorsements is available on NJCAAN's Ocean Routing page.

  • NJCAAN releases a report assembled through Freedom of Act Requests (FOIA) to the FAA. Subsequently, Senator Torrcelli and Representative Ferguson send a joint letter to the Department of Transportation Inspector General requesting he investigate the FAA's December '01 implementation of the Yardley Robbinsville Flip Flop.

  • The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), as an impartial body recognized for its expertise in engineering design, reviews NJCAAN's ocean routing airspace plan in 1998 at the request of Governor Whitman.

    In 1999, NJIT publicly endorses a test of this plan to provide immediate noise relief to the Garden State as the metro airspace redesign proceeds.

    In August of '99, Governor Whitman announces she has commended the study to the FAA with the request that "ocean routing be given serious consideration."

    Three months later, in November, Governor Whitman writes Administrator Garvey requesting the FAA live test the first portion of the NJCAAN plan. Endorsements of the Governor's position, including former Mayor McGreevey, are mailed to the Administrator. Support also includes letters from over half of the state's legislative districts affected by aircraft noise and numerous local townships. Some of these are noted NJCAAN's Ocean Routing page.

  • Editorials by the Asbury Park Press, Home News Tribune, and Courier-News have endorsed ocean route testing. In April 2000, NJCAAN was featured in The New Jersey Monthly in an article entitled "Twelve Ways to Make New Jersey Better." Ocean routing was the featured topic.

  • NJCAAN's political pressure prompts federal officials to begin working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) on noise abatement programs for communities adjacent to Newark Airport. Until Senator Torricelli and NJCAAN resurrect the issue, the PANYNJ has ignored Part 150 for more than 20 years. Part 150 is a federal program funding noise relief projects.

    In February 2000, Representative Holt releases a congressional study on the Port Authority blasting its noise mitigation programs in New Jersey.

    In March 2000, the PANYNJ announces it will soundproof nine more schools.

    In March 2001, the PANYNJ approves funding for soundproofing 12 schools near Newark and Teterboro.

    In March 2002, NJCAAN exposes a study never released to the NJ Press Corps and commissioned by the PANYNJ. The study concludes airplane noise, even below 65 DNL, disrupts the classroom, reduces teacher time and results in loss of student attention. Thousands of children are potentially affected by the current air route structure that impacts New Jersey's densely populated communities.

    In April 2002, the PANYNJ announces that it secures monies through the Airport Improvement Program to cover 90% of the cost to sound insulate schools in Hackensack, South Hackensack, Kearny, Newark and Teterboro. The PA further reports that it will review schools beyond the 65 dB contour on an individual basis to continue its sound insulation effort.

  • NJCAAN, in the early '90's, discovers our Metropolitan area airports are not receiving their fair share of quieter Stage 3 planes. In fact, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA) is allowing the airlines to operate an inordinate number of noisy Stage 2 planes over our communities. Intense pressure by NJCAAN results in bistate legislation followed by historic Assembly bistate hearings. Public scrutiny of this PA "business practice" slowly but surely pressures change. Over a period of 10 years, Stage 2 planes are retired from Newark International Airport (EWR) and the EWR fleet is presently all Stage 3.

  • NJCAAN in March 2002, with an assist from its general aviation airport alliance, secures 7 cosponsors to the Quiet Communities Act (H.R. 1116) in a three-week period. New Jersey, with a total of 8 House sponsors, strongly declares its support for legislation that would refund the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Noise Abatement and Control. The significance of this legislation is that it removes noise regulation from the FAA where there is an obvious conflict of interest, assigning it to the EPA. In May 2002, a concurrent resolution is filed in the state legislature (SCR# 56 and ACR# 104) affirming support for the Quiet Communities Act.

  • NJCAAN is the driving force behind the proposed "Bubble Bill." The legislation is supported by 12 county freeholder boards and organizations including the NJ Environmental Federation, NJ Environmental Lobby, NJ Lung Association, NJ Sierra Club, NJ Citizens for Environmental Research, and the Association of NJ Environmental Commissions.

    Currently active in the both houses of the 210th State Legislature, it has bipartisan sponsorship [S.1057 Bagger/Vitale and A.1065 Kean/Stender]. The bill seeks to control airport air pollution, presently an unregulated source of emissions. Similar federal legislation in the current 107th Congress, "The Right to Know About Airport Pollution" (H.R. 3886) is sponsored by Representative Rothman.

    In March 2002, NJCAAN's teamwork with Representative Rothman results in a bicameral delegation letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Whitman. Both Senators and 9 House Members of the NJ Delegation request that Mrs. Whitman institute a comprehensive airport pollution study for Newark and Teterboro.

    In June 2002, the EPA releases the results of its '96 air quality data collection. It reports current levels of air pollution are exposing Americans to a lifetime cancer risk at least 10 times greater than levels considered acceptable by the federal government.

  • Addressing general aviation issues, NJCAAN forms an alliance with 12 municipal, general aviation airport, and community groups in surrounding Central Jersey Regional, Morristown, Solberg, Somerset, Teterboro, Trenton/Mercer, Trinca, and South Jersey Regional airports. Each endorses a live 6-month test of NJCAAN's Ocean Routing Plan.

  • NJCAAN, working with the League for the Hard of Hearing, raises the public's awareness of the physical damage of excessive jet noise. As a result of this joint effort, Senator Torricelli inserts a bipartisan amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill (106th Congress) requiring the National Academy of Science (NAS) complete a study of airport noise. In June 2000, the US Government Accounting Office undertakes the study. It concludes in its final report to Congress that the NAS should be the lead scientific body conducting the study. NJCAAN has been advised that funds will be sought during this current 107th Congress to accomplish this end. In April 2002, the Transportation Research Board's draft report identifies an "Aircraft Noise Health Effects Study" as one of seven topics for research it considers crucial to advancing aircraft noise mitigation.

  • In June of 2002, the NJCAAN membership endorses a resolution supporting Amtrak's viability as an alternative source of efficient, cleaner, quieter transportation -- one of essential importance to the economy and quality-of-life in the Northeast Corridor.

  • NJCAAN, in January/February of 2002, garners extensive press attention from national noise journals on its position related to legislation directed at the expansion of Chicago O'Hare (S.1786 and H.R. 3479). NJCAAN cites potentially serious implications for the Garden States and asserts "this federal legislation is a blueprint for the federal government to steamroll local concerns and bypass negotiation and compromise within localities when dealing with environmental issues. The bill's sponsors and cosponsors [includes 1 NJ Senator and 2 NJ House Members] appear so determined to build runways and an airport that they would propose an unprecedented federal law that negates local rule, undermines environmental protection, disregards property rights, annuls state legislative authority and strictly limits the measurement of noise impact. The precedent threatens New Jersey." NJCAAN establishes itself as a national policy airport noise commentator.

NJCAAN as Featured in the New Jersey Monthly, April 2000
"Twelve Ways to Make New Jersey Better"


Pamela Barsam-Brown, Executive Director of NJCAAN, is featured in the April 2000 issue of New Jersey Monthly article "Twelve Ways to Make New Jersey Better."

"Too much airplane noise" is listed as a big problem in NJ, along with "not enough open space" and "too much traffic." "Every day New Jerseyans debate the issues that affect the quality of life in our state and the possible solutions for improving it." Ms. Barsam-Brown is one of "twelve experts in a variety of fields [sharing]...ideas on how to make the Garden State a better place to live."

Ms. Barsam-Brown notes that NJ is afflicted with jet noise from the three major area airports: Newark, Kennedy, and LaGuardia as well as the small regional airports scattered around the state. Flying aircraft are stacked in four distinct levels, one on top of the other with the lowest flights at 3000-5000 feet over residential communities.

The ocean routing plan is a "simple solution" whereby noisy commercial flights would fly offshore. No flights would cross over land until they are at a sufficiently high altitude that they do not cause any noise impact on the ground. In addition, special takeoff procedures would help by having planes "take off at a steeper incline so they're at higher altitudes faster and therefore less noisy."

Political support for a live test of ocean routing has grown tremendously. "Last November Governor Whitman wrote a letter to Jane Garvey, the head of the FAA, which read, "'It's time for you to test the ocean routing plan for those poor, tired, besieged New Jerseyan's.'"

Ms. Barsam-Brown points out that at least a million people would benefit from noise reduction attributed to the ocean routing procedure. "For everyone in central and northern Jersey, there will be a grand reduction."