Make Airport Funds Dependent on Noise Abatement

Good for Representative Salud Carbajal. He deservedly shares a lot of credit for bringing federal funds to his district.

While the funds for the Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) are no doubt important, they should be disbursed only if the airport demonstrates real concrete progress in noise abatement in the surrounding neighborhoods.

As of now, Santa Barbara’s aircraft noise abatement program seems to be limited to recording readings from its three noise detectors and recording residents’ complaints. What should be done is for agencies like OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to take readings in kitchens and bedrooms along the fight paths to determine both sound and aircraft exhaust pollution levels that residents are being exposed to daily.

Working with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), SBA administration needs to establish or restore safe aircraft noise abatement departure and arrival routes that reduce current noise and enforce by incentives, adherence to these routings.

For example, until 2004 or so, aircraft departures from runway 25 (westward) turned before Storke Road out over Devereux Slough open space. Then, suddenly, without any recorded public process, departing aircraft were routed straight over west Goleta neighborhoods. Rumor has it that UCSB wanted to build some faculty housing nearby. Goleta’s City Council has been trying to undo that mysterious change for years, with no success.

While the Goleta and Santa Barbara city councils have recently agreed to work together in aircraft noise mitigation, it is going to take firm intervention to compel the airport to get the FAA and the airlines to join in this effort.

The specter of airlines walking away from serving Santa Barbara is a nightmare for city boosters, so smart and collaborative efforts must prevail, with flight safety paramount.

But until this gets started, nothing has been or will be done except the continued gaslighting of residents who complain about the deafening noise which starts about 5 a.m. and continues all day until after midnight.

Residents of west Goleta and More Mesa neighborhoods need to organize and contact Rep. Carbajal, their state and county representatives, as well as OSHA and the EPA to motivate the Santa Barbara City Council and Airport Commission to get moving on this. It is a public health and quality of life issue. Nothing less.

With an eye-popping budget deficit, the last thing the city of Santa Barbara needs is the cost of defending a class action lawsuit.

Frank DiMarco is a member of the newly formed Airport Noise Working Group but writes here as a private citizen. He remains guardedly optimistic.