BY DEAN AMUNDSON,
MSP FAIRSKIES ORGANIZER
About 100 Minneapolis and Edina residents showed up at the Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC) general offices on Thursday evening, Aug. 27. The MAC was unveiling its huge expansion plan that will accommodate an estimated 54 million passengers by 2035 (their numbers). That number will be twice as many passengers as last year, 2014, and, of course, that means twice as many flights, and that means jet noise and pollution will be doubled.
Although the MAC might have intended this meeting to be a “business as usual” presentation of the expansion plan, they were quite surprised at the strong showing of concerned residents already living under a huge burden of jet noise and pollution.
Those attending at first just listened to the MAC prepared presentation, but then took over the meeting’s intended format. Angry residents demanded answers to questions about new noise before allowing the meeting to end. MAC conveners had to call up their environmental chief, Chad Leqve, and then CEO Jeff Hamiel to answer questions shouted out to the convener. MAC’s original format was to split people into smaller groups and shuffle them into focus rooms. The angry noise sufferers would have none of that.
Michael Kehoe, Minneapolis resident and longtime airport noise critic, led the room with a loud statement of not leaving the room. With others following, shouting out, ‘We’re not moving. We’re staying here.”
The questions were the longstanding ones: “Where are the environmental studies?” “Why is the jet traffic so low and so steady?” “What exactly is enough air traffic?” “What’s the airport’s capacity?”
MSP Fairskies founders, Kevin Terrell and Steve Kittleson, said, “Let’s not rush towards a future we’ll hate (in reference to delaying the implementation of the expansion) … Let’s try to be creative in rethinking our airport use, pause on this plan and look at alternatives.” Creating a statewide use plan could move some air traffic burden to St. Cloud and Rochester.
The meeting ended with no clear answers to what the neighborhoods will face with all the additional jet traffic.
The strength of the citizens’ response did thrust anti jet noise and anti pollution advocates into a negotiating position, as the future of MSP’s growth is decided. Hopefully, they will gain a place at the table, but the real decisions will be made by the FAA.
