Report from UC Davis

March 4th, 2010

by Mary Ellen Eagan

I attended the UC Davis ‘Eco-Aerovision’ Symposium in San Diego this week.  The symposium was created 25 years ago to provide a forum for California airport noise officers to share ideas, challenges, and war stories.  Over the years, the symposium has gone through significant transformation, and is now an annual international gathering of airport staff, community members, operators, land use planners, regulators, manufacturers, and academics to collaborate on a range of environmental topics that stymie airports, including noise, air quality, and climate.

Navigating Sustainability

Navigating Sustainability

I would say that there were two general themes that were reinforced throughout the conference:

  • First, we have been at this (noise challenge) for a long time, and it’s probably fair to say that there’s not much “low hanging fruit” left.  This suggests that the challenges that remain are difficult, and will continue to get even more so.  Several sessions supported this theme, including a discussion of Noise Beyond DNL 65, facilitated by Jessica Steinhilber of ACI-NA and Dan Frazee of San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.
  • Second, that addressing noise issues at airport is a very long term prospect.  Two good examples were provided by Flavio Leo of Massport and Mary McCarthy, who talked about the 32-year history of building a new runway at Boston-Logan International Airport, and 14 recent legal challenges to the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign.  Ultimately, it seems, runways will be built and airspace will be re-designed to suit more efficient air travel (the FAA’s 20-0 track record on significant NEPA challenges was touted by Ted Boling of CEQ during his keynote address).  Our challenge it seems, is to make the process be as transparent, honest, and fair to airport neighbors as possible.

To that end, the FAA’s Office of Aviation Policy, Planning & Environment conducted its final workshop supporting development of a Noise Research Roadmap.  Like the symposium, this day-long session was an honest and far-ranging discussion of research needs to advance our understanding of noise issues and to identify “actionable hypotheses” and research projects that could be conducted to accomplish those goals.

Finally, at the risk of narcissism, I was humbled (and COMPLETELY STUNNED) to receive the 2010 Walt Gillfillan Award for “exemplary work addressing the challenges of reducing the environmental impacts of aviation”.  Many thanks to those who found me deserving of the nomination.

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Report from ACC/AAAE Planning Design and Construction Symposium

February 27th, 2010

by Mary Ellen Eagan

I had the pleasure of attending the 2010 ACC/AAAE Planning Design and Construction Symposium this week in Atlanta (where the weather was more like Siberia, but that was probably a good way to keep us attending sessions!).

A couple of general themes that emerged were:

  • The aviation industry has done an incredible job of spending the $1.1b allocated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, strongly demonstrating that: (1) our industry can work collaboratively and efficiently to deliver projects, and (2) there is a strong need for continued infrastructure investment in aviation.  Specifically, John Duvall of AAAE reported that all the funding was allocated as of January 2010; a total of 326 ARRA projects were approved, and already 185 have been completed.  Certainly jobs were created in this industry!  There is discussion that aviation may receive an additional $500m in funding through the current Jobs Bill being debated in Congress.
  • Nevertheless, according to Ben DeCosta of Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport (the world’s busiest), the number one issue facing airports today is a lack of revenue that flows throughout the industry.  Accordingly, the industry must continue to “design to budget”.  Susan Baer of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey echoed that while the industry has never been “wasteful”, it is more important than ever to prioritize cost in design – her example was the new JetBlue Terminal at JFK (here and here), where significant emphasis was paid to cost, and still a gorgeous result.

I spent most of my time at the Symposium attending the Sustainability Track. Suzanne Geckle of CH2M HILL did a great job organizing a diverse and information-packed agenda, even though she just returned from maternity leave this week (that’s my kind of gal!).  Sessions included: 

  • Can Airports Meet LEED Goals?
  • Funding Green Initiatives
  • Lasting Passenger Friendly Sustainable Materials
  • Sustainable Airfields
  • IT Controls to Reduce Costs and Emissions

I particularly enjoyed presentations by Mike Kenney of KB Environmental Sciences on IT and Air Quality Modeling, and Ripley Rasmus of HOK on sustainable design for Indianapolis International Airport’s new LEED Terminal.

Finally, my personal highlight of the conference was the announcement of the 2010 Jay Hollingsworth Speas Award to Rick Busch at Denver International Airport.  DIA has been an HMMH client since its inception, and we are very proud to see Rick and his team get the recognition they deserve for a comprehensive, innovative, and effective noise management program.

Denver International Airport

Denver International Airport

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EPA Issues New Short-term NO2 National Ambient Air Quality Standard

February 4th, 2010

by Phil DeVita

On January 22, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strengthened the primary national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by adding a 1-hour NO2standard of 100 ppb.  The EPA administration is retaining the current annual standard of 53 ppb.

The EPA decided the existing annual standard does not provide sufficient protection of public health in the short-term period and believes the new standard will protect against adverse health effects associated with short-term exposure near roadways and urban areas. Current scientific evidence suggests short-term exposures to peak NO2 concentrations correlates with adverse respiratory effects to sensitive populations (i.e., children and the elderly) leading to increased visits to emergency rooms.

Currently, all areas of the U.S. comply with the existing annual NO2 standard.  EPA will designate attainment and non-attainment areas for the new standard by January 2012.  Over the last 30 years, annual NO2 concentrations have continued to decrease.  This decline is mainly attributed to more efficient automobile engines due to the implementation of emission standards for light-duty vehicles.  With the phasing in of emission standards for heavy duty engines in newer vehicles, we should continue to see decreases in NO2 emissions in the future.

Studies have shown that NO2 concentrations are typically higher near roadways when compared to existing monitor locations maintained by state agencies.  Concentrations in heavy traffic areas can be as much as two times greater than residential areas.  As part of this action, EPA is requiring changes to the monitoring network to protect the public health from high short-term concentrations near major roadways, urban areas (i.e., areas with a population greater than 1 million people), and in communities vulnerable to NO2related health effects. These new monitoring and reporting requirements will begin by January 1, 2013.  Once these new monitors are in place, EPA at their discretion could re-designate attainments areas in 2016 or 2017.

The new short-term standard will affect all types of emission sources including aviation, mobile sources, and fossil fuel combustion sources.  For new projects subject to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and located in a NO2 non-attainment region, general conformity determinations will need to demonstrate project emissions will not exceed the new standards prior to receiving federal funding.  This may subject some sources to additional mitigation measures and could require a source to obtain emissions offsets.   In addition to NEPA review, a project may also need to demonstrate compliance with the new standard in order to receive approval under a state environmental policy act or an air quality permit.   One way of addressing compliance with the standard is conducting air dispersion modeling.  Air dispersion modeling is typically used by new or existing facilities to demonstrate compliance with the NAAQS.   Moving forward, dispersion modeling could be an effective tool many sources will utilize in demonstrating compliance with the new standard.

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High Speed Rail Acceleration

February 1st, 2010

by Lance Meister

In what was, I think, widely regarded as something of a surprise last year, President Obama announced that $8 billion dollars would be allocated to high speed rail (HSR) projects around the country.  This was a complete and fundamental about-face from previous policy and totally unexpected.  The next several months were spent by the administration and the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) trying to determine what projects would qualify and how the money would be allocated.

The late summer and early fall was a frantic time for project sponsors, trying to meet the requirements for the grant applications.  HMMH was involved, in a small part, in a number of those applications, including in Florida, California, New York and the Mid-West.  Since then, it’s been a waiting game.

On Thursday, January 28, President Obama made the announcement regarding the grant awards.  The full list of awards is here.  Given that he was making the announcement in Florida, it came as no surprise that the Tampa-Orlando project was one of the big winners.  Other big winners were the California HSR project, New York-Albany-Buffalo and the Mid-West projects, including Chicago to St. Louis.  Many of the projects on the list are not really high speed rail projects, but are really just upgrades to existing lines to improve speeds and safety.  However, Florida and California are dedicated HSR projects, and if implemented as proposed, would represent real HSR in this country that would compete with systems around the world.

It’s clear that the $8 billion is not enough to build a complete HSR system, even if the entire amount had been given to one project.  However, it is very symbolic, and it’s a jump start at getting projects moving, and hopefully attracting more money at all levels to get the projects built.  The administration is also committing money each year to continue funding of HSR projects.

It’s been a long time coming in this country, and for those who have been advocating HSR for decades in the US, it’s a sweet victory.  Our own Carl Hanson has been involved in virtually every HSR project in the country over the last 30 years, and he’s as excited as I’ve ever seen him at the possibilities.

Now the fun really begins.  It’s time to get HSR moving in this country.  My hope is that one day we refer to the Obama High-Speed Rail System, much like the Eisenhower Highway System.   This may very well be the enduring legacy of the Obama administration.

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Turn it Down!

January 29th, 2010

by Mary Ellen Eagan

I’m often asked what it must be like to be the child of a two-parent noise family (my husband is a member of the Acoustics Facility within the Environmental Measurement and Modeling Division at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Research, and Innovative Technology Administration, John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.  Here’s a sample.

We had ‘science weekend’ in our house (this, based on the theory that we did not ‘push’ science hard enough with the 12-year old when she was young – no time like the present to work on the 5-year old!).  Most of the afternoon was devoted to making slime and other forms of goo, but we spent the evening doing a family hearing test (why, of course we have all the equipment in our house to do that!).  Here are the findings:

  • David needs hearing aids.  The years of flying and too much rock and roll have taken their toll.  I now have scientific data (which he collected himself) to justify my increasing frustration at simple requests to take out the garbage (though that can also be ascribed to ‘selective hearing’, but that’s the subject of another post).
  • I have lost some hearing, typical of a middle-aged woman (who perhaps listened to too much rock and roll in an earlier – and more fun – stage of my life).
  • Molly has a gap in her hearing at 100 Hertz.  As in, there’s nothing there.  Apparently her iPod has been tuned too loud for too long.  There must be something about the Lady Gagabeat.  In any case, her iPod has been taken away for three months, to see if she can restore the hearing in that frequency.  Here’s a good articledetailing the hazards of listening to your iPod, if you want to learn more. 
  • And Greta seems to be able to hear pure tones at frequencies as high as 60,000 Hertz.  Which makes her a dog.  Or perhaps a cat.  We’re going to double-check on it (and now David wants to test all the kids in the neighborhood), but suffice it to say it was pretty incredible.

Moral of the story:  Turn your iPod down, and tell your kids to do so, too.

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