HILO — Hawaii Island residents received no immediate solutions to the problem of helicopter tour noise pollution during a meeting Thursday afternoon, but were assured that their voices were heard as federal officials once again attempt to address the issue.
HILO — Hawaii Island residents received no immediate solutions to the problem of helicopter tour noise pollution during a meeting Thursday afternoon, but were assured that their voices were heard as federal officials once again attempt to address the issue.
Representatives from the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Authority traveled from Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles for the meeting. On Wednesday, a similar event was hosted in Honolulu.
More than 50 people attended the 90-minute meeting at Hilo International Airport, with several others participating via conference call.
As an informal discussion and not a public hearing, the meeting was intended as a way for the federal officials to gain better perspective on the situation.
Dennis Reynolds, Western Pacific regional administrator for the FAA, said noise issues arose in all parts of his district, which includes Arizona, California and Nevada.
“I’m really here to listen and learn from all of you,” he said.
The meeting was not well-publicized, with many in attendance saying that if there had been more notice, the small meeting room at the airport would not have been enough to contain the already standing-room-only crowd.
“I think we would have had thousands of people in here,” said Puna County Councilwoman Jen Ruggles. “This is a very big issue for our district.”
Fellow Puna Councilwoman Eileen O’Hara also attended the meeting, and Ka‘u Councilwoman Maile David spoke briefly during the conference call.
All three council members said they are frequently contacted by constituents about helicopter noise. Puna and Ka‘u are the districts most affected by the helicopter flyovers because Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the Pu‘u O‘o lava flow lie within them.
Several people at the meeting said they regularly recorded more than 100, and in some cases more than 200, helicopter flights over their homes in a single day. Others said flights can begin as early as 6:15 a.m.; that flights take place even on holidays; that they are concerned about pollutants getting into catchment tanks; and that helicopters were flying at dangerously low altitudes.
“We haven’t even talked about potential crashes in residential areas,” said Brent Magstadt of Keaau.
“What is true is that nothing has been done and that complaints seem to be swept under the rug,” said Storm Steiger of the Hawaii Island Coalition Malama Pono, a nonprofit dedicated to ending the helicopter noise problem.
A major contributor to inaction is the uncertainty regarding who people are supposed to contact regarding enforcement.
Neither the NPS nor the FAA actually regulates noise, said Alan Yamamoto, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono’s state director. When calls are made to the state Department of Transportation, he said, they are passed on to the FAA and logged in the system, but with no enforcement action taken.
“When people call to complain, they can’t get a resolution,” Yamamoto said.”I think the frustration is they go to the agencies they believe have regulatory authority … and they have to run around in circles.”
Yamamoto was working for Hawaii’s Congressional delegation when the late Rep. Patsy Mink in Washington, D.C., first proposed federal legislation aimed specifically at overflight noise regulation in the state’s national parks.
“This is a very, very important issue for the NPS,” said Ray Sauvajot, NPS associate director of Natural Resource Stewardship and Science. “It has been for a long time, and it’s been a vexing one for a long time. Our commitment is to get to a better place.”
The helicopter noise issue started shortly after Kilauea began erupting in 1983.
After that, “There was more aircraft noise than wilderness noise,” said Dan Taylor of Volcano, who worked at the park for 20 years. “I’ve been through it for a long, long time now … and almost nothing has changed. We’re listening to the same comments, the same arguments.”
Members of the national park’s Kupuna Council who attended the meeting noted the same thing, presenting a letter signed in 2005 when they were discussing the matter with then-U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka. They also urged representatives to take into account the sacredness of the land itself and said calling Congress was the only way to get any action taken.
Though the comments and arguments are largely the same as they were decades ago, some variables made the matter worse.
“We have greater populations over where the helicopters fly on the islands, so the (problem) is more acute,” Yamamoto said. Puna, for example, is the fastest-growing district in the state.
And the helicopter noise is not limited to the the park and its immediate surroundings. Several people from the Wailuku area said helicopters pass over their homes daily on flights to Rainbow Falls.
Neither Reynolds nor Sauvajot had immediate solutions for the issue but said they will continue to meet with the state DOT and with the Congressional delegation in the future.
“We got the message, there’s no doubt about that,” Reynolds said.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.