Since runway 9L27R opened on November 20, 2008, we have heard a steady stream of complaints from those Park Ridge residents in the path of that runway. All of a sudden, residents whose interest in airplane noise had been virtually non-existent were now up in arms, and looking for something – anything – to be done about the planes using that new runway.
As can be seen from the FAA’s 2/5/09 letter to Mayor Howard Frimark [pdf] detailing its reponses to specific questions and comments by Park Ridge residents at the December 18, 2008, “Town Hall meeting,” the FAA does not appear inclined to volunteer anything to change the current status quo. As it points out at page 13 of that letter: “The FAA conducted the [Environmental Impact Statement process] in full compliance with [the National Environmental Policy Act] and in coordination with all relevant Federal, state, and local agencies.” That doesn’t leave much room for negotiation.
We here at PublicWatchdog think it’s way past time for a reality check in connection with this new runway situation, and also a rational plan of action based on that reality check – two things which have been sorely lacking since Richie Daley’s rolling thunder review began cutting a noisy swath through the Belle Plaine corridor six months ago.
Let’s start with the reality check.
Reality 1. O’Hare is one of the world’s busiest airports and it sits less than two miles from the western border of Park Ridge. It just completed a $500 million-plus expansion featuring a new runway and control tower. Who in their right mind honestly believes that O’Hare won’t run as many planes in and out on that runway as the FAA allows – and pocket as many passenger fees as Richie Daley can spend on sweetheart deals for his cronies?
Reality 2. The more flights that use the new runway, the less flights use 22R and 22L. Which means we’re caught in a zero-sum game: every time the 5th and 6th wards get noisier from flights using 9L27R, the 1st and 2nd wards get quieter. This has cast Park Ridge in the role that Lincoln warned about in 1858, albeit in connection with slavery: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Unless and until all of Park Ridge gets behind a single plan for dealing with airplane noise, we cannot expect anybody in authority to take sides in an intramural battle between various areas of the same community.
Reality 3. Nobody – not Richie Daley, not Springfield, not Washington D.C., not the FAA, not even our neighboring O’Hare suburbs – seems to care one bit that the new runway has brought airplane noise to new areas of Park Ridge. Which is why not one of our U.S. Senators or one of our U.S. Representatives (including our very own congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky) has stepped up to the plate in any big way for us in the O’Hare battle.
Reality 4. Litigation has proved to be totally ineffective in combating O’Hare expansion, as the last remaining members of the Suburban O’Hare Commission (“SOC”) – Bensenville and Elk Grove Village – demonstrated so expensively over the past five years since Park Ridge withdrew from SOC. And we hear that the ORD-REST group got precious little encouragement from the attorneys with whom they have talked about the prospect of suing O’Hare, Chicago, the airlines, the FAA, or the EPA.
Reality 5. In the absence of any clear and convincing legal or political weapon in our arsenal, installing more noise monitors and collecting more sound and pollution data is an exercise in futility – nothing more than a hollow don’t-just-stand-there-do-something reaction that is likely to result in nothing more than wasted time, money and effort. Instead, we need to focus, not on more data gathering, but on changing the noise measurement standard from the average decibels over a 24-hour period (the Day/Night Sound Level, or “DNL”) to something that more accurately reflects the heightened decibel levels only during those periods of time when planes are actually flying over Park Ridge.
In view of these unfortunate realities, we need a plan that’s decidedly different from the same old, same old that has gotten us (and our neighbors) exactly nowhere. So here it is:
The City (through Mayor Schmidt and/or City Mgr. Hock) should meet in person A.S.A.P. with both of our U.S. Senators and the nine Congressmen/women who represent the suburbs surrounding O’Hare: Jan Schakowsky (D. 9th), Melissa Bean (D. 8th – former Park Ridge resident), Peter Roskam (R. 6th), Judy Biggert (R.13th), Mark Kirk (R. 10th), Michael Quigley (D. 5th), Daniel Lipinski (D. 3rd), Danny Davis (D. 7th) and Luis Guitterez (D. 4th). And the questions posed to them should be simple and direct: “What, if anything, are you willing to do to help reduce the noise and pollution from the planes flying over Park Ridge?” And: “What, if anything, do you need from Park Ridge to help you do it?”
The answers to those two questions will tell us, more than anything else, whether we have any real chance of improving our situation vis-a-vis the new runway, and airplane noise and pollution from O’Hare generally; or whether we are just spitting into the wind.