Love Field Neighbors Launch Noise Mitigation Proposals at Environmental Commission Meeting
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Residents who live near Love Field are still mad about the noise generated by the city-owned airport, but for the most part, they appear to understand their adversary is not the City of Dallas; it’s the airlines that aren’t complying with a voluntary noise curfew.
The Love Field Citizens Action Committee has been working with airport staff to prepare a briefing for the Dallas City Council, now slated for Nov. 1. Dallas Love Field’s Good Neighbor Program will host a meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the AviationFoxtronics Building, 3448 W. Mockingbird Lane.
Aviation Director Patrick Carreno presented 14 recommendations to the city’s Environmental Commission on Wednesday. Most are supported by airport staff; just one is not.
While the collaborative, thoughtful approach from the Citizens Action Committee appears to be a good strategy to get results, lengthy emails are exchanged regularly among Love Field neighbors who have lost hope that the noise will ever be abated.
“A lot of lies were told to get us here,” resident Andy Wallace wrote in an email. “It’s Southwest Airlines who has effectively won in every scenario, all to save them from having to taxi to Denton [ runway] and save on their tax bill by so graciously paying for the terminal. I’ve had to stop caring so much about this because it has caused so much stress. I’ve talked to others who feel the same but again the community is the one organization who appears to always be overlooked in all airport decisions.”
Proposals for Noise Mitigation
CAC co-chair Steve Klein and members Kerri Lacher and Pat White addressed the noise issue at last week’s Environmental Commission meeting.
“Our chief goal is to effect a culture change,” Klein said. “We feel that nothing changes unless there is a top-down culture change that places noise-sensitivity issues at top of mind with the operational culture at Dallas Love Field.”
Enplanements at the airport are at an all-time high, Klein added.
“We operate in a federal regulatory environment that offers us some tools to regulate operational noise at the airport locally, however many must be approved by the FAA,” he said.
All 14 of the CAC recommendations are realistic and several have no associated cost, Klein said.
View the full Oct. 11 Environmental Commission presentation and the Citizens Action Committee background document.
The 14 Citizens Action Committee recommendations are:
- Include voluntary noise curfew at Love Field precluding scheduling passenger airline flights between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. into the VNP.
- The Department of Aviation will communicate on a regular basis to remind operators of the VNP.
- The Department of Aviation will improve communications with stakeholders.
- TRINITY departure to be converted into an Area Navigation (RNAV) departure procedure by the FAA.
- Establish a departure procedure similar to the TRINITY departure for Runway 13L/31R (parallel to Lemmon).
- Conduct study to identify the most beneficial Noise Abatement Departure Profile (NADP).
- Consideration for Part 150 study.
- Establish a city resource for a sound insulation program.
- Conduct detailed study to determine sound insulation program eligibility for residential, educational, health, and religious structures at or above the 65 Day-Night Average Sound Level (DNL) noise contour.
- Conduct a study assessment for constructing a noise barrier between Denton Avenue and Dallas Love Field to determine effectiveness.
- Develop new DNL contours using 2023 data.
- Add provisional limitations on the use of reverse thrust dependent on weather and safety conditions.
- Communicate with Air Carriers and Aircraft Operators to operate quieter aircraft models (i.e., Boeing’s MAXs or Airbus’ NEOs) during quiet hours.
- Improve the current Noise and Operations Monitor System (NOMS) that would add additional technology/software and reporting capabilities.
All the proposals except No. 7 are supported by Department of Aviation staff, Carreno said at the Oct. 11 Environmental Commission meeting. He explained that recommendations Nos. 8 and 9 offer a better solution than the stakeholders’ proposal No. 7, which calls for a voluntary FAA-defined process for airport noise studies.
“Some of these measures are going to take FAA review,” Carreno said. “Some are going to take some time before being implemented. Our recommendation is to move forward with 13 of the 14 recommendations.”
Dallas Love Field Neighbors Say Noise is Intolerable
Residents of Bluffview, Elm Thicket/Northpark, Briarwood, Love Field West, Bordeaux Village, and Highland Park say they hear airport noise all day and night, despite the voluntary curfew.
“The intolerable levels of noise generated by Southwest Airlines aircraft have now pervaded the hours after midnight and before dawn to the point where it warrants the issuance of a court injunction against the continuing nuisance,” said attorney Henry Simpson. “Voluntary abeyance has become a sham utilized to induce those affected to believe there is some reasonable effort made to curtail aircraft noise originating at and around Love Field. There is not.”
Residents say they were told that departures would be split more evenly between the Lemmon Avenue and Denton Drive runways once construction was complete on the Denton Runway in June 2022. That hasn’t happened, says resident Keith Menter.
“For 70 years the Denton Runway was the main runway,” he said. “Prior to 2014, there were only 50 flights a week off the Lemmon Runway. Now we have more than 200 a day. The Lemmon Runway is surrounded by far more neighborhoods and residences than the Denton Runway, which primarily impacts a commercial area.”
Carreno has said that noise is a priority, but public safety is No. 1.
“If you land on the Denton side and you have to taxi back, you’re then crossing an active runway that’s very busy,” he told CandysDirt.com in August. “It’s not the safest.”
