Fight against flight path in court today
-
- May
- 11
Lawyers representing the parts of the Northeast, including Rockland, are in federal appeals court today to oppose a plan that redirects air traffic over our area.
The lawyers are appearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Rockland County and 11 governments and organizations from Delaware to Connecticut are suing to prevent the FAA from implementing its New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Airspace Redesign project.
The Federal Aviation Administration successfully sought to have the 12 cases heard together in one court.
The FAA has said congested airspace above New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware must be changed to accommodate the growing number of planes in the skies, for safety reasons and to reduce delays.
Starting in July 2012, more than 11,000 residents in Orangetown and Ramapo could hear more noise from the 300 to 400 planes preparing to land at Newark Liberty International Airport each day. The busiest days could have as many as 600 planes flying about a mile above the county.
Larry Liebesman, the attorney representing Rockland, will argue that the FAA did not properly follow National Environmental Policy Act procedures.
Other plan critics claim the FAA did not properly air pollution and traffic levels into account.
Connecticut state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also is presenting an oral argument, citing the FAA’s failure to consider the impact of increased noise on residents and state parks. Those same impacts would also be felt in Pound Ridge, on the Connecticut border in the northeast corner of Westchester.
Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News and LoHud.com.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 10:06 am by Khurram Saeed.
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