Airport construction slowed by ecology laws, says E.P.A. official

An EPA official warned in the early 1970s that environmental laws were slowing the construction and expansion of airports across the U.S., even as air travel demand was projected to double by 1980. Dr. Stanley Greenfield highlighted that airports create both direct pollution — including noise, air, and water contamination — and indirect impacts through the industrial and residential growth they attract nearby. He called for a comprehensive national program to address aircraft-airport noise, while acknowledging that the technology to fully eliminate aircraft noise at its source was not yet available.

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Dr. Stanley M. Greenfield, assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, warned that environmental pressures translated into national law have slowed new airport construction despite projected doubling of passenger air miles by 1980. He described both primary environmental impacts of airports (noise, air and water pollution) and secondary impacts from industrial and residential development attracted to airport vicinities. Greenfield called for a comprehensive national program for aircraft-airport noise abatement, noting that complete technological control of aircraft noise was not yet available.

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