Eastside Cities Are Leery Of Sharing Airport Noise

Sharing isn't a concept that goes over well with the parties discussing what to do about aircraft noise above the Eastside.

While a lot of attention has been focused lately on the Federal Aviation Administration's proposal to reroute incoming flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a separate turf war has developed among Eastside communities over currently departing flights.

Under the FAA's current policy, 148 flights a day leaving Sea-Tac make what's called an ``East Turn procedure,'' taking them about 4,000 feet above Medina, Clyde Hill and central Bellevue.

Residents in those communities, however, want the FAA to re-examine a plan shelved last year that would spread the noise by establishing a second ``East Turn'' above Mercer Island.

Mercer Islanders want to keep the flights where they are.

``It really is a separate issue,'' said Temple Johnson, air-traffic manager for the FAA's Northwest Mountain Region.

Johnson said he agrees the East Turn should be split into at least two flight paths to relieve noise levels above the Medina area. Technically, the FAA could implement the change without approval from Mercer Island.

However, Johnson said the FAA will not make the change without Mercer Island's blessing. ``Unless we can get some agreement on the Eastside, the East Turn will remain as it is,'' Johnson said.

Not if Dr. Bob Rudolph, a Medina resident, can help it.

Rudolph is part of a 20-member, noise-mediation committee formed by the Port of Seattle in 1988. He is also president of Eastside Citizens Against Aircraft Noise, which is spearheading the drive to persuade the FAA to split the East Turn.

``Our position is that we will take our fair share, but we shouldn't have to take all the flights,'' Rudolph said.

Rudolph's 500-member group formed last year and has collected more than 2,500 signatures on a petition calling for relief from jet noise. Resolutions passed last year by Bellevue, Clyde Hill and Medina councils also support a second East Turn corridor.

Rudolph contends that Mercer Island officials have used their political muscle to get the FAA to shelve the plan to split the East Turn flight track.

``You wonder why Mercer Island should have that kind of political clout,'' Rudolph said. ``It's unfair and stands in the way of seeking an equitable solution for all the communities.''

Trying to muster their own political clout, Rudolph and members of the Medina Town Council briefed U.S. Rep. John Miller, R-Seattle, on the problem Friday.

Miller said he supports the idea of ``an equitable dispersement (sic) of the noise burden,'' but proposes that noise monitors be installed to determine the extent of the problem. ``If the FAA is going to be credible, clearly, we need to see some (noise) data,'' Miller said.

Another sore point with Medina and central Bellevue residents is that departing flights were moved north above their area about three years ago, without explanation, said Rudolph, who has lived in Medina since 1979.

Johnson denies that the flight path was moved north. ``Not at all,'' he said. ``The predominant track is just north of Interstate 90, skirting the northern tip of Mercer Island. That hasn't changed in years, except for the fact that there are a lot more planes now.''

``It really has changed,'' Rudolph said. ``And we have quite a bit of evidence supporting that. I was never bothered by jet noise until 1987, and everyone in this community will tell you the same thing.''

Rudolph said several pilots and one FAA official, speaking off the record, acknowledged that the track was moved north after a number of Mercer Island residents complained several years ago.

Rich Conrad, Mercer Island's assistant city manager, said the second flight path proposal is similar to a ``scatter plan'' the FAA tested for several weeks in 1987, which resulted in more than 3,000 complaints from residents.

``Mr. Rudolph seems to want to push the noise farther south,'' Conrad said. ``But the same noise he is objecting to can already be heard by the people on the northern half of the island.''

The southern part of Mercer Island also gets noise from Renton's airport, said state Rep. Jim Horn, who is also a Mercer Island city councilman.

But it's not like the noise Medina and central Bellevue put up with, said Medina City Manager Pat Dodge.

``We've become an airplane noise landfill,'' Dodge said. ``We're the place everybody takes their jet noise (to) and dumps it.''

East side flight paths

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to continue northbound departure patterns that take the bulk of air traffic over an Eastside corridor between Interstate 90 and Highway 520.

Proposed Northbound departure

SOURCE: Mestre Greve Associates, Federal Aviation Administration