By Lindsay Press and Hank Russell
North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena and Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin held a press conference in a Floral Park neighborhood on February 19 to announce they filed a joint lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on behalf of more than a million residents living near airports who are subjected to low-flying aircraft, deafening engine noise, and hazardous air pollution. The legal action comes after the FAA failed to respond to the municipalities’ joint petition, and has been officially filed prior to today’s announcement.
“This wasn’t what it was a decade ago,” Clavin said. “This isn’t what it was five years ago.”
“We acknowledge that we live in the path of two of the nation’s busiest airports. And we all acknowledge that litigation should be a last resort,” said DeSena. “But after years of good faith efforts being ignored, our residents have arrived at that juncture. At stake is their quality of life and more alarming, their overall well-being, and as their elected representatives we will not stand idly by.”
Based on a July 5, 2024 press release from North Hempstead, according to the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, the FAA is required to conduct an environmental review or secure a categorical exclusion to continue utilizing the flight path.
The press release also cited the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which reported that aircraft traveling lower than 3,000 feet can cause air pollution. This pollution includes potentially dangerous toxins such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxides, and other trace compounds – especially during take-off and landing. Studies have shown that communities in and around this flight path – including Valley Stream, Hempstead, Inwood, and West Hempstead – have a higher-than-normal rate of asthma, stomach cancer, and prostate cancer, all linked to exposure to aircraft emissions.
With the emergence of new air traffic control systems and satellite-based navigation, Town of Hempstead and Town of North Hempstead communities have seen a 70% increase in the number of flights and an altitude decrease of up to 1,000 feet. Communities in these high-trafficked flight paths can see more than 300 planes per day, many of them exceeding decibel levels that are considered disruptive (65 dB). Accordingly, more than 388,000 airplane noise complaints were filed last year – a massive increase over recent years.
“Not only are our communities being victimized by increased flights, noise, and air pollution … but the FAA didn’t even have the courtesy to respond to the concerns of more than one million residents who live here,” said Clavin. “Enough is enough. The Town of Hempstead and Town of North Hempstead are fed up with the FAA’s apparent indifference to our community’s quality of life and public health, and this federal lawsuit will force them to be responsive and accountable to our residents.”
In fact, JFK Airport handled over 63 million passengers last year alone, a 105% increase from 2021. Runway 22L at JFK saw a staggering 50% jump in arrivals, with over 90,000 flights in 2023 alone. The arrival path has even been coined by pilots as the “Arc of Doom,” due to the overwhelming air traffic and number of arrivals. What’s more, there has been 25 midair near-collisions over Long Island reported by pilots, air traffic controllers, and dispatchers.
As mentioned in the lawsuit, a 2022 Government Accountability Office report indicated that there was “inadequate community engagement and insufficient environmental impact assessments before implementing changes …” The report also claimed that just 30% of flight path changes under the new systems were given thorough environmental impact reviews.
“As a former member of the Legislature’s Aircraft Noise committee and a representative of the hamlet of Elmont neighboring JFK, I am keenly aware of the negative environmental and quality of life impacts caused by poorly managed airplane traffic,” Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages (D-Valley Stream) said in a statement.
Long Island Life & Politics reached out to the FAA. The agency replied, “The FAA does not comment on potential litigation matters.”