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Appeals court hears<br>overflight arguments

TUSAYAN — Grand Canyon’s overflight issue went before a federal appeals court Thursday in Washington with the Grand Canyon Trust arguing that current regulations allow too many sightseeing tours while the U.S. Air Tour Association argued that the restrictive rules could run some flight companies out of business.

Attorneys for both the Trust and the USATA asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rewrite rules adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration, which apply to small fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters.

The FAA implemented the 1987 National Park Overflights Act, which directed the FAA and the National Park Service to restore natural quiet by reducing noise from air tours. The FAA followed with a series of restrictions and route limitations, including a 2000 decision to cap the number of flights at 117,000 per year. The goal behind that decision was to create natural quiet in at least half the park.

William Thode, USATA attorney, argued that the FAA based the 2000 cap on computer models designed to predict noise in urban areas.

"They lowered to an unjustifiable and artificial level what they characterize as" natural quiet in the Canyon, Thode was quoted as saying in a story by the Associated Press. "It’s a ridiculous standard to apply and call a scientific method."

Alexander Dreier, Grand Canyon Trust attorney, said the FAA’s rules do not go far enough with the Canyon’s natural beauty and serenity at stake.

Dreier asked the three-judge panel to direct the FAA to rewrite rules to meet the NPS standard. The two agencies differ with their calculation methods to determine natural quiet.

The FAA uses noise averages from the entire year, which includes off-peak periods during the winter. Using that method, the FAA said 44 percent of the park meets the standard for quiet.

The NPS says noise should be measured each day without averaging peak periods with off-peak periods. Under that standard, 19 percent of the park meets quiet standards.

"Congress was clear that the FAA was not the agency it trusted to write this definition," said Judge Merrick Garland, who in 1998 wrote an appeals court opinion that upheld restrictions on flights within the Canyon.

The FAA's attorney countered that the cap on flights is only part of the plan and the court’s intervention would be a premature move. Other factors include incentives for quieter plans and route changes in the western corridor.


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