FAA Proposal Aims to Cut Noise in Grand Canyon

In the latest move in a 12-year effort to control noise levels at Grand Canyon National Park, the federal government is proposing to limit sightseeing flights over the park.

Suggested regulations released Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration would for the first time cap the number of flights, a source of controversy for years.

The rules package would hold helicopter and plane flyovers to 88,000 a year, the same number that took place from May 1997 to May 1998, according to Ken Weber, a park branch chief.

The proposal, which would also slightly modify flight routes, would reduce noise levels somewhat but not enough to reach the goal set by a 1987 federal law.

That fact prompted immediate protests by environmentalists, who said the government has moved far too slowly to control the noise of planes and helicopters sweeping over the canyon.

“They could meet [the goal] now,” insisted Rob Smith of the Sierra Club in Phoenix. “They don’t seem willing to take the steps necessary to meet it.”

The goal is for the FAA and National Park Service to restore natural quiet in more than half the park for more than three-fourths of each day.

Currently about a third of the park attains that, and the FAA says its plan would push the figure to 41%.

Ron Williams, president of AirStar Helicopters, complained that the proposed cap will stifle his business.

“Next year I won’t be able to do what I did this year,” said Williams, whose small company runs about 20 flights a day from the south rim.

Federal officials were right to take action in the late 1980s, he acknowledged, but he said flight path restrictions implemented since then have greatly improved the situation.

“We flew anywhere and everywhere and over everybody and everything. It was definitely a problem in 1987,” Williams said “[Now] there’s no justification for what they’re doing.”

Still, the number of flights over the canyon has about doubled since Congress decided that one of the nation’s grandest natural attractions was sounding too much like an airport.

“Is that what Congress intended--wait 12 years and allow the industry to more than double and then put a cap on it?” asked Brad Ack, spokesman for the Grand Canyon Trust, a Flagstaff-based environmental group.

Weber said the park has until 2008 to fully meet the noise limits.

“This helps prevent an increase in noise and allows us to get a good grip on what we have to do,” he said.

The FAA is expected to act on the proposed rules in two months, after a public comment period.