SOUND AND FURY Complaints against jet noise from S.F. Airport spreading to southern Peninsula communities Benjamin Pimentel, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, August 6, 1998 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elizabeth Boudart's lament has echoed for decades in cities nearest to San Francisco International Airport. ?We'd be in our back yard barbecuing, and we'd have to stop everything as a plane went over us,'' said Boudart, a video producer and editor. ?It's not just one plane -- it would be a series of planes.? But Boudart lives way down in Palo Alto -- more than 20 miles from SFO and from such communities as San Bruno, South San Francisco and Millbrae, where planes taking off rattle windows creating a nerve - racking din across neighborhoods. For years, these cities have battled the airport over noise. Now, the outrage over jet noise is spreading southward. In the past two years, residents and leaders from such places as Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Foster City have joined the fray. They are demanding that the airport order jet planes to stop flying over their houses. ?It's the same thing as jaywalking -- but it's jayflying,? said Foster City Mayor Eileen Larsen. ?They are flying across the cities of the Peninsula from Los Altos Hills to Burlingame and others.? Southern Peninsulans complain mainly about noise from arriving planes. These sounds are far less intense than the sonic blasts from departing jets, but they still irk many residents. ?Why these pilots can't fly over the bay or fly higher is beyond my comprehension,? Boudart said. Airport spokesman Ron Wilson said an increase in international flights using larger jet planes means more noise. And more arriving flights from the north and the Pacific are also using a landing route that takes them over a larger chunk of the Peninsula. ?If every airplane made the ideal approach to SFO, they would come here idling," Wilson said. ?But not everyone can do that, based on traffic and other conditions. These larger aircraft are going to be applying power, and they are going to make noise. There are newer types of aircraft that are relatively quiet -- but you are still going to hear them.? San Francisco International and other airports are required to keep noise in nearby communities to 65 decibels averaged over 24 hours, with heavier weight given to noise in the evening and late at night. Sixty-five decibels is about the noise level of a normal face-to- face conversation. Ideally, arriving flights from the north or the Pacific fly south from Point Reyes to the bay, where they take a sharp right turn onto SFO. Called the ?slam dunk? approach, this is the quietest flight pattern. But more and more flights are taking the ?Peninsula approach,? an alternate route that takes them down the Peninsula before turning sharply left as they make their final approach to the airport. Andy Richards, acting manager of Bay Tracon, a federal agency that monitors flights to and from Bay Area airports, said this pattern is being used more often because of an increase in air traffic over the bay -- airspace San Francisco-bound planes share with flights to and from other airports, particularly San Jose International and Oakland International. In the Bay Area's complex aviation system, San Francisco airport officials say that they do not have much control over how and where planes fly. ?You have the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) concerned with flight routes, safety and security,? said airport community affairs specialist Dan Seaver. ?You have the airline pilots who control individual flights. You have the airlines which have their own concerns over safety, efficiency and fuel costs. You have international trade agreements which say we cannot restrict planes.? Many southern Peninsulans are not satisfied with that explanation. They are becoming more politically active in the fight against noise. Palo Alto is trying to become the first Santa Clara County city to join the Airport Community Roundtable, the advisory body composed of representatives from San Mateo County and San Francisco that negotiates with SFO on noise issues. ?We thought it made a lot of sense to be part of the Roundtable so we could contribute,? said Palo Alto Mayor Dick Rosenbaum. But the city's application has been denied. While Palo Alto must deal with the noise, airport officials and Roundtable members say, Palo Alto's problem is nowhere near as bad as it is in San Mateo County. Adding more members could dilute the discussions. ?If we open up to Santa Clara County, pretty soon we will have 100 elected officials telling the airport and the Roundtable what to do,? Wilson said. ?It will get so unruly that you will not get anything done. Everyone will have their own agenda.? In fact, at least one Roundtable member, Foster City, has become disillusioned with the group. ``It's a discussion group,? Larsen said. ?It has no budget. It has no power. It has no staff of its own. It has as much power as the PTA.? Some southern Peninsula residents even formed their own citizens anti-airport noise group called Uproar. And, recently, in a controversial move, Foster City took the unprecedented step of hiring a law firm in its battle for a quieter SFO. Larsen said the city hopes to challenge the assertion in court by San Francisco airport director John Martin that federal law limits his powers over flight routes. Foster City hopes to present the Roundtable with a legal brief later this year supporting the position that Martin has more regulatory power. ?He (Martin) is saying nothing is within his power,? Larsen said. ?But we believe that's not the way things are. There are things he can do, and we would like him to be able to do this. Our duty is to make skies over Foster City safe.? For his part, Martin says he would gladly use any additional power Foster City's attorneys could uncover for him. ?If their attorneys find a way for me to exercise more power over the airlines and the FAA, I'd be happy to use the power,? he said. Ed Simon, mayor of San Bruno, one of the Roundtable's longtime members, chided Foster City's initiative, saying, ?The noise was there before the people bought their houses.? In fact, San Francisco International and the airlines had tried to stop the development of Foster City more than 35 years ago -- when the city was still an undeveloped patch of land called Brewer Island. In a March 1960 resolution, the SFO Sound Abatement Center, formed by the airport, the airlines and the FAA to deal with noise issues, urged the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors not to build residential communities on Brewer Island because they would be subjected to aircraft noise. The advice was ignored, and Foster City was incorporated in 1971. Simon urges his southern neighbors to be more patient. ?It's hard for people who have been working together to get too excited about someone in Palo Alto complaining about a plane at 5,000 feet waking them up -- we get them at 200 feet,? he said. ?It's good that they're active, but their expectations should be to work with neighboring cities and work out solutions.? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOUND FOOTPRINT Sound levels in residential neighborhoods within the outlined area around the airport exceed state and federal standards. Sound levels are calculated using the CNEL (Community Noise Equivalent Level) method that averages sound levels for a 24-hour period that may include short bursts of loud noise. Departing planes create the largest area of high sound level. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- STANDARD LANDING APPROACHES Flights arriving in fair we1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page A17