Trenton Mercer Airport Causes Noise over Yardley Borough
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), created in 1958, is a regulatory agency that has long been known to protect the public, insisting safety standards for commercial airlines are adhered too. But with the Trenton Mercer Airport of Mercer County, this might not exactly be the case. In fact, a lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Trenton against FAA.
An FAA administrator stated that once the FAA approves an airline can start with a few flights at an airport, the airline can then increase their number of flights without the need for FAA to review the hours of operation and flight frequency. It appear there are now over 60 flights per week leaving and arriving from the Trenton Mercer airport. There is obviously a big difference in airport noise with a couple of flights a week and the noise pollution caused by 60 flights per week. The small borough of Yardley Pennsylvania is located just under the flight path for one of the airports runways and the residents there are fed up. We spoke to several business owners and they hear the complaints.
On September 19, 2012, Frontier Airlines sent the FAA a short email that asks for the approval to make two flights a week from Trenton Mercer. A few days later, an official from FAA sent Frontier a memo that grants the approval of this request, and called it an “Operations Specifications Amendment.” But, now, the FAA claims that this amendment gave blanket approval for Frontier to make as many flights it wants from this airport without the FAA reviewing its impact.
According to an FAA official cited in another article, when the amendment of Frontier was approved to allow it to operate at Trenton Mercer Airport, there is now no need for Frontier to get further FAA approvals. These matters are business decisions that are made by the air carrier without having to involve the FAA. It is our understanding that there are now a number of lawsuits filed by a grassroots group of residents living in Yardley, Lower Makefield and Upper Makefield known as BRRAM. We are writing about this to help support and create some awareness of BRRAM. This organization is trying to get an environmental impact study done by the FAA using an independent third party. There are plans of expanding the airport facilities and perhaps increasing its popularity with air travelers. These studies are expensive and this group is the local advocate for residents of Yardley, Lower Makefield and Upper Makefield townships in Bucks County. If you wish to get involved on the Airport Action Meeting, visit this website for more information.
Many of our parents are discussing this topic in our waiting room. We provide dentistry for children in Ewing, Mercer County as well as those in Bucks County. Both these areas are impacted by the noise pollution. We are also considered the best kids dentist in Pennington, Washington Crossing and Upper Makefield area and therefore concerned about what is the environmental impact is to our region.
