By Michele Monda, Laguna Beach
I would like to thank Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, CA-48, for his help with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the airplane noise over South Orange County and putting the SoCal Metroplex on the radar. Rep. Rohrabacher wrote to the FAA requesting that the planes fly farther out in the ocean and cross land at higher altitudes to minimize the noise and pollution. He received what amounts to a pat-on-the-head, stock answer from the regional director of the FAA—pabulum—saying that any adjustment to the flight path (that they just instituted in March) would have to be studied and reviewed. Funny that they didn’t do that when switching from the old flight paths—which is precisely what the Newport Beach/Laguna Beach/Orange County lawsuits are all about.
Rep. Rohrabacher then went one step further since he received no real response from the FAA. He added two amendments to H.B. 2997 or the 21st Century Aviation Innovation, Reform and Reauthorization Bill. They basically say that planes shall fly no lower than necessary for safety over the SoCal Metroplex and that safety should be considered first and community concerns be second in analyzing changes to the flight path. This is extremely important because this was not done before they created the new flight paths in March. I would think that Newport Beach/Laguna Beach and the Orange County Board of Supervisors would be very happy to use this information in the mediation proceedings for their lawsuit. Thank you, Rep. Rohrabacher.
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