Noise will always be a source of complaints as long as planes – especially jets taking off and landing at late hours of the night or early in the morning - keep flying in and out of Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport.

So, one would expect semi-annual public hearings concerning compliance with the noise monitoring act – one held at Thursday afternoon at the Cranston Public Library and the second that evening at the airport, would be well attended. They weren’t.

Apart from RIAC personnel and Dawn Mineker PE, RIAC Vice President Engineering and Architecture who presented the mandatory report, only two members of the public were in attendance. Both Michael Zarum and Richard Langseth dutifully follow airport developments and make their opinions known at City Council and RIAC meetings and in letters to this newspaper. They sat at the RIAC board table as Mineker went through her presentation that included such data as how many passenger jets using Green are equipped with quieter stage 3 engines, those outfitted with “hush kits,” how many have infringed on a voluntary curfew between midnight and 5 a.m. as well as numbers of aircraft adhering to take off in seven corridors designed to minimize residential impacts. Mineker said 90 percent of departing flights follow the corridors. And, of course, there was data on the number of complaints.

A key element to a noise report would be data on noise, but oddly that’s not required of the report as Zarum points out. Furthermore, he reasons the metrics used to measure aircraft noise is outdated and should be retired.

He noted in an email following the meeting, “I requested that RIAC include currently accepted FAA supplemental metrics (which currently supplement the FAA's current single noise metric of 65 DNL, for local noise reporting going forward until such time as the current inaccurate metrics are replaced.”

Zarum sought to raise the issue in the comment period following the presentation but it was not discussed.

“The bottom line is that RIAC is again under-reporting aviation noise impacts as our residents perceive aviation noise within our community, by using a statistically invalid FAA noise metric. It's another scam,” he wrote.

Additionally, he said RIAC has web site information on local planning and zoning “that is false and contrary to stated FAA policy.”

He explained the FAA only has control over federal land and that Green is state owned .

Acknowledging the mandatory report is limited to scheduled passenger flights, Langseth suggested future reports be expanded to include corporate jets flights and the numbers of those with noisier stage 2 jet engines. He also thought airport officials should be in attendance at the semi-annual hearings dictated by law.

“We expect to have officials here to answer questions,” he said. He suggested that the reports include more data than just the past two quarters.

On top of his list of complaints is a FedEx jet that takes off daily at 3 a.m. It wakes him up. The report does not include air cargo operations, which are projected to increase with RIAC’s plan to relocate and expand cargo operations from the north side of the air field along Airport Road to south of the terminal. Construction on the $100 million facility has commenced even though through court action the city is seeking Federal Aviation Administration review of its FONSI (finding of no significant impact) of the project. The city wants written assurances that traffic to the air cargo facility – especially trailer trucks – will be routed to the Airport Connector without using local roads. Mayor Frank Picozzi is focused on diverting heavy commercial traffic from City Centre where approved developments are projected to result in an estimated 800 apartment and condo units.

Picozzi said last week he requested the state’s congressional delegation to intervene in the matter, but they declined on the basis that the matter is before the courts. RIAC is looking for the city to abandon or sell the rights of way to portions of three streets within the project area. RIAC has said it is in the process of designing a roundabout that would enable trucks to access the Airport Connector. So far, however, the city hasn’t seen a viable plan nor has RIAC signed a memorandum of understanding restricting air cargo trucks from using local roads.