Sign the Fair Air traffic petition:

PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE! www.miltonscene.com/petition

Many communities surrounding Boston Logan Airport are negatively affected by the FAA’s NextGen satellite technology, which condenses traffic in and out of airports into concentrated paths. Though the FAA claims that these patterns can increase efficiency, it detrimentally affects those on the ground beneath the paths. The issues that we see locally are reflective of a national implementation. Hence, we live in one of of the many communities affected across the country.

The air traffic issue is complicated, therefore, the language may be foreign to you. These measures are necessary to bring relief to the surrounding communities near and far dealing with relentless plane traffic that cause negative and serious health impacts. Upon signing, this petition will be immediately, sent by you*, to:

• The Federal Aviation Authority
• Massport & Massport Board
• Senator Ed Markey
• Senator Elizabeth Warren
• Congressmen Stephen Lynch
• Congressmen Michael Capuano
• State Senator Walter Timilty
• Milton Board of Selectmen

The air traffic petition:

We the undersigned strongly urge our Senators and Congresswomen and Congressmen to ensure that strong protections for communities and citizens near airports are built into the House and Senate FAA Reauthorization Bills. Around the country, concentrated RNAV flight routes have been harming the health and decimating the quality of life for citizens and communities under these flight paths.

We call for the views of affected citizens to be equally represented along with those of the airline industry and its lobbyists. We demand that the right to health and a decent quality of life for citizens living near airports be recognized and prioritized in the FAA’s mission, right after safety, and before efficiency.

The damaging impact of the NextGen program’s concentrated flight path was immediately apparent upon its implementation and we ask that new solutions be found that do not wreak havoc with the lives of children, adults, the elderly, and families and which minimize and justly distribute aircraft noise and air pollution across the entire region benefiting from proximity to an airport.

Among other measures, we specifically call for:

• Implementation of ALL known noise mitigation tools and strategies to alleviate the excessive and unbearable aircraft noise and air pollution burdens–ranging from adoption of a noise metric that reflects the actual experience of people under and near flight paths to the retrofitting of vortex generators on all A320 aircraft–and the funding of studies to develop additional new tools and strategies.
• The formation of a National Academies Health and Medicine Division committee to synthesize all of the current scientific information about this public health problem and report its findings in a consensus document.
• Reassignment of responsibility for environmental impact studies and monitoring and enforcement of acceptable noise and air quality levels to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), rather than the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has an inherent conflict of interest.
• A review of all RNAV procedures including redress for affected communities.
• An end to FAA categorical exclusions that circumvent environmental impact studies and a review of all RNAV procedures including redress for affected communities.
• A requirement that the FAA inform and enter into dialogue with any potentially impacted communities of any potential changes in flight paths or procedures that would impact them.
• The inclusion of citizen voices affected by NextGen flight paths at FAA Reauthorization hearings and incorporation of their views into the Reauthorization bill.
• A requirement for a 24/7 FAA employee to monitor, respond to, and act upon resolving air traffic complaints.

Please sign the petition below*:

*Note that immediately upon signing and submitting, this petition will be sent to the bulleted offices above, from your email address. It will also be added to the larger list above. This will allow individual offices and representatives to follow up with you.