TagPart 150(36)

Re: FAA Authority to change the 65 DNL noise contour At a recent StART Aviation Noise Working Group meeting, I shared my professional opinion that it would take Congressional action to change the FAA’s 65 DNL noise contour standard. Below, please find additional details that informed my thinking on this topic. Background 1. First here is a quote from "A Guide to the Rulemaking Process" Prepared by the Office of the Federal Register: "Agencies get their authority to issue regulations from laws (statutes) enacted by Congress. In some cases, the President may delegate existing Presidential authority to an agency. Typically, when Congress passes a law to create an agency, it grants that agency general authority to regulate certain activities within our society. Congress may also pass a law that more specifically directs an agency to solve a particular problem or accomplish a certain goal." 2. There are at least three places where 65 DNL is spelled out specifically in federal regulations and federal orders. These are as follows: 2.1. Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) 14 Part 161. This Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) describes the process from which any noise abatement rules may be required to show a cost benefit analysis prior to any approval or implementation. The rules dictate that all cost benefit analyses are limited to only the benefits within the 65 DNL contour. The authority for FAR Part 16 is spelled out in the Airport Noise and Capacity Act (ANCA) of 1990. In this act Congress was vague…

Landrum & Brown Team Appendix F – Supplemental Noise Analysis October 2013 Page F-1 APPENDIX F SUPPLEMENTAL NOISE ANALYSIS This appendix presents the results of the supplemental noise analysis that was prepared for this Part 150 Study using the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) Integrated Noise Model (INM) Version 7.0b. This analysis was prepared for informational purposes only. According to FAA guidelines, supplemental noise metrics cannot be used to justify noise mitigation measures. However, this information can be of value to describe marginal noise impacts that are related to daily living activities, particularly speech and sleep. The Day-Night Average Sound Level (DNL) is the standard noise metric used for environmental noise analysis in the U.S., and as such is the metric upon which noise impacts and potential noise mitigation measures are evaluated. Information on the DNL noise exposure contours that were prepared for this Study is included in Chapter Three, Section 3.6 of this document. During the course of the Study, citizens at public forums asked for specific supplemental metrics to be run. This Appendix presents those supplemental metrics: Time Above Level (TA) – The “time above,” or TA, metric indicates the amount of time that sound at a particular location exceeds a given sound level threshold. TA is often expressed in terms of the total time per day that the threshold is exceeded. The TA metric explicitly provides information about the duration of sound events, although it conveys no information about the peak levels during the period of observation. Exhibit…