S. 268, the National Parks Overflights Act sponsored by Senator John McCain, was heard in the Senate Commerce Committee July 31. This legislation is critical to restoring natural quiet destroyed by aviation noise over Grand Canyon National Park as well as other national parks. The bill needs to be strengthened and it needs our support.
Aviation Subcommittee
Telephone (202)224-4852;
Fax (202)228-0326
Slade Gorton, Washington, Chairman
Republicans
Slade Gorton, Washington
Ted Stevens, Alaska
Conrad Burns, Montana
Trent Lott, Mississippi
Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas
John Ashcroft, Missouri
Bill Frist, Tennessee
Olympia J. Snowe, Maine
Sam Brownback, Kansas
Democrats
Wendell H. Ford, Kentucky
Ernest F. Hollings, South Carolina
Daniel K. Inouye, Hawaii
Richard H. Bryan, Nevada
John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia
John B. Breaux, Louisiana
Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota
Ron Wyden, Oregon
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
202-224-5115
508 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510-6125
John McCain, Arizona, Chairman
Republicans
John McCain, Arizona, Chairman
Ted Stevens, Alaska
Conrad Burns, Montana
Slade Gorton, Washington
Trent Lott, Mississippi
Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas
Olympia J. Snowe, Maine
John Ashcroft, Missouri
Bill Frist, Tennessee
Spencer Abraham, Michigan
Sam Brownback, Kansas
Democrats
Ernest F. Hollings, South Carolina
Daniel K. Inouye, Hawaii
Wendell H. Ford, Kentucky
John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia
John F. Kerry, Massachusetts
John B. Breaux, Louisiana
Richard H. Bryan, Nevada
Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota
Ron Wyden, Oregon
1. First, S. 268 should address all units of the National Park System where natural quiet has been identified as a significant resource of the National Park Service. There are several land management designations administered by the Park Service, including national monuments, wild and scenic rivers, and national seashores, among others. The Park Service must be able to protect natural quiet in these areas as well. Some of them may some day become national parks, such as happened at Grand Canyon. If natural quiet has not been protected pro actively in such units, it may not be recoverable later.
2. Second, in addressing natural quiet as a "part of the parks natural resources and experience," S. 268 should state explicitly that the Secretary of the Interior, through the National Park Service, has the sole authority to determine whether natural quiet is part of the parks natural resources and experience, and the responsibility to protect and preserve that natural quiet in the parks. As noted above, this addition would properly recognize the National Park Services expertise in the resource management arena.
3. Third, S. 268 requires the Secretary of the Interior to report to Congress on the success of the plan in protecting natural quiet and any recommended revisions needed to accomplish the goals of the act. The bill should require the FAA to implement, without change except for safety reasons, any plan revisions the Secretary deems necessary to accomplish the goals of the act to preserve and protect natural quiet. That is, the bill should state explicitly that Congress intends these measures to succeed, not merely that the agencies need act but once for any given park, regardless of whether that single action accomplishes the mandated goal. We have learned this lesson the hard way at Grand Canyon, where the Park Service has determined that the 1988 Aircraft Management Plan has not restored the natural quiet of the park, yet the FAA maintains it has done all it is required to do under the Overflights Act of 1987.
4. Lastly, two other additions would strengthen S.268. They are: (1) providing for the designation by the Park Service of "Flight-Free Parks" in units of the Park System that are without tour overflights and where natural quiet must be protected; and (2) requiring data collection to enhance management of tour flights, including operators reporting the number of tour flights they fly, the routes and durations of their flights over park units, and accident rates, as well as investigating the feasibility of requiring automatic flight tracking systems on tour flights to provide altitude and ground location information.
Senator McCain helped write the original National Park Overflights Act of 1987. It has proved insufficient in the fight against noise in the Grand Canyon, however, as the number of flights has grown significantly since then. Both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and to a lesser extent the National Park Service(NPS) have allowed the problem to worsen since 1987. One important aspect of S. 268 is that it shifts the balance of power to the NPS and allows the FAA to change park service plans for safety reasons only, and not for economic, industry-promoting reasons.
For more information on noise in the Grand Canyon, see
The Testimony of the Grand Canyon Trust to the Senate Commerce Committee.
Noise in our National Parks and more specifically Report to Congress: Report on Effects of Aircraft Overflights on the National Park System (1994). This is a quite lengthy report that details a wide range of costs and benefits of overflights. Included in the report are effects overflights have on natural quiet as a natural resource, cultural and historic resources, wildlife, visitor enjoyment and safety. Values associated with tourist overflights are also taken into account. The report used information from surveys given to park managers and visitors to the park on the ground and in the air. The report gives recommendations to reduce the impact of overflights on National Parks.