Dear Stop the Chop NY/NJ friends and supporters,
IMPORTANT ACTION IS NEEDED ON YOUR PART BY FRI.,DECEMBER 3O - IF YOU MISSED THE PREVIOUS DEADLINE TO COMMENT ON THE HELICOPTER SIGHTSEEING PLAN FOR NY HARBOR!
Submit your comments on the new FAA & NPS Helicopter Sightseeing Plan for the NY Harbor! See below for links and details on how to use the online NPS comment portal (in case you had trouble with the form, we now have detailed instructions below). Make your comment here:
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=112479
STOP THE CHOP NY/NJ DOES NOT SUPPORT THIS PLAN WHICH WILL INCREASE HELICOPTER NOISE & TRAFFIC!
On October 21, 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Park Service (NPS) announced a short 30-day public comment period on the draft air tour voluntary agreement for commercial air tour operations (helicopter sightseeing) in the New York Harbor touring the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Governors Island National Monuments. Stop the Chop NY/NJ,Friends of Liberty State Park. Many of our Congressional representatives sent letters requesting an extension (we thank them), and that was granted! Thus, if you missed the previous deadline, your comments are now due on Friday, December 30!
We have drafted the below comments (I am sending new ones to you so the NPS/FAA does not receive too nay identical comments) with various topics you can use in your opposition to the new plan. We believe this plan will increase helicopter noise and traffic in the New York Harbor area, resulting in worse conditions for New Yorkers in the Battery Park, South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Heights, Red Hook, Governors Island areas and for Jersyites in the Liberty State Park and Jersey City areas. Please feel free to utilize the letter below, but also write your own personal comments! That variety of comments is very helpful to our cause!
Public comments MUST be submitted through the NPS Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website here: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=112479
DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO COMMENT VIA THE NPS WEBSITE:
1. Click on the link to the NPS website via this newsletter (Note, the links work as I just submitted our comment using the link is this newsletter. If the link doesn't work for you, try a different internet browser.)
2. Click on “Open For Comment” on the left side of the NPS website
3. Click on the “Draft Voluntary Agreement…” in the center of the website page
4. Click on the “Comment Now” button in the middle of the NPS website page
5. Fill in the form and copy / paste our STCNYNJ letter into the comments box or write your own comments!
6. Hit submit
7. Given the hyper links in the STCNYNJ letter, one has to confirm they aren’t a robot-computer and so one needs to put the random letters / digits in the box and then hit submit
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****To read the actual NPS/FAA draft helicopter tour Agreement and the accompanying Frequently Asked Questions for the New York Harbor, go to:
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=277&projectID=112479&documentID=124250
HERE IS OUR NEW SAMPLE LETTER: (Copy, cut & paste/ add your comments to personalize it!!!!)
Dear National Park Service (NPS) and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA),
As a NYC/NJ metropolitan area resident, I thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed “Commercial Air Tour Voluntary Agreement for Statue of Liberty National Monument and Governors Island National Monument.” Unfortunately, I find the proposal to be extremely inadequate and strongly urge the FAA and NPS to revise the plan.
This proposed Agreement, if implemented, would create devastating effects on users of New Jersey's Liberty State Park (LSP), Governor’s Island (south side), and residents of New York City’s Battery Park, South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Heights, and Red Hook neighborhoods due to the intensely loud noise the tourist helicopters would create over said geographic areas, and for the reasons below.
MORE NOISE AND AIR POLLUTION FOR RESIDENTS AND VISITORS:
The proposed new 1,000 feet lateral setbacks and ½ mile voluntary agreement boundaries over the three national parks (Governors, Ellis and Liberty Islands) in the New York Harbor, were recently created by the NPS and FAA to “minimize effects of commercial air tours on the Parks” and “to protect visitor experience throughout the Parks by reducing potential disturbances caused by commercial air tours.” (See Agreement section 3.1). However, by creating this buffer around these Parks to protect tourists, the unintended negative consequences will be to bring the sightseeing helicopters closer to land on both sides of the Hudson River resulting in more noise and air pollution for New York and New Jersey residents! Tax paying New Yorkers and Jersyites (who are already suffering the effects of incessant noisy and low-flying sightseeing and commuter helicopters) will ironically and tragically be subjected to even more noise pollution, sound vibrations, and reduced air quality as this Agreement only considers those effects on the tourists physically on the Parks. (It should also be noted that this Agreement will NOT reduce the visitor noise experience while they wait for ferries to bring them to the Parks, nor as they try to enjoy the south part of Governors Island over which one boundary divides).
REDUCTION OF QUALITY OF LIFE; HEALTH AND WELL-BEING CONCERNS:
Millions of New Yorkers who reside, work and/or recreate in the following neighborhoods (including their use of waterside parks) will be negatively impacted if this Agreement is implemented: Manhattan’s Battery Park and South Street Seaport, and Brooklyn’s Red Hook and Brooklyn Heights. This Agreement sacrifices the health, well-being and quality of life of New Yorkers and Jersysites in the impacted areas so that for-profit polluters can take joy-riding tourists near the National Monuments in the New York Harbor. It is proven that exposure to noise pollution is a serious risk factor to one's health, leading to health concerns such as hearing loss, sleep disturbances, higher blood pressure, negative impacts to the body's cardiac, endocrine and nervous systems, and increases the likelihood of anxiety and depression. Additionally, noise pollution exposure lowers one's cognitive abilities and increases stress.
THERE NO SIGHTSEEING TOUR CAP IN THIS PLAN:
Unlike other recent NPS/FAA draft air tour sightseeing plans created throughout the United States, this NY Harbor Agreement has no caps for the number of helicopter sightseeing tours that will be allowed! Ironically, the Agreement actually allows two additional tour companies to be included, and even possibly more, thereby likely creating even more helicopter traffic than the present! I urge you to create a cap in a revised draft Agreement that would substantially limit (or better yet, ban) the number of allowable tours.
THE HEIGHT LIMIT IS TOO LOW:
In this Agreement, there is only a 500 foot above ground height limit. This is incredibly low, and completely insufficient in terms of reducing helicopter noise pollution in the surrounding areas. I urge you to substantially increase the height limit in a meaningful way to ameliorate the negative effects of noise pollution for locals and visitors alike.
THERE IS NO TERRORISM PREVENTION PLAN:
Another problem with this Draft Agreement is that is does not contain any terrorism prevention plans even as it notes the high terrorism risk to the NY Harbor Parks! The draft Agreement warns that the “Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) have identified Statue of Liberty National Monument as being at increased risk for terrorist activity, and therefore the park unit is subject to much higher safety and security standards consistent with DOI and DHS critical infrastructure policies.” Yet, the proposal fails to offer a solution to this serious risk. NYC has been the very real terrorist target for decades, and tragically those deadly attacks are still fresh wounds for many in the community who lost loved ones, co-workers, and/or businesses as a result. Terrorism is a serious concern that is not addressed in the Agreement, and given the airplane hijackings on 9/11 that destroyed NYC's World Trade Center, this is an unacceptable omission.
THE HELICOPTER INDUSTRY HELPED CREATE THE PLAN WITHOUT COMMUNITY INPUT:
My other serious concern is the fact that the helicopter companies were at the drafting table with the NPS and the FAA in creating this Agreement. There were no community groups, community boards, environmental organizations, academics, nor any elected representatives included in the drafting process. Why was the industry included without any members from the impacted public, or any of the other groups mentioned, to create this biased plan in their favor?
NO IMPACT STUDIES WERE CONDUCTED:
Additionally, I take issue with this Agreement as there were no scientific studies conducted to address how the noise and air pollution created by this Agreement will impact residents and the environment, nor how sightseeing helicopter noise gets conducted over water (the New York Harbor) to impact those on land. Do the NPS and the FAA know how much pollution and harmful particulate matters will be spread across the region as a result of these fossil-fuel based helicopter sightseeing tours? What is the full environmental impact of allowing these carbon intense tours, especially concerning given the recent climate change caused super storms, such as Hurricanes Sandy and Ida that resulted in so much damage and loss to life and property in the NYC metropolitan region.
PENDING LEGISLATION:
New York electeds, in seeking to ban or curtail these type of nonessential helicopter flights (and others), due to ever increasing public complaints and numerous recent fatal helicopter crashes, have introduced legislation at all levels of government: Congressional bills H.R. 1643 and H.R. 7769; the New York State “Stop the Chop” bill currently awaiting the Governor’s signature; and at least four separate bills currently pending in the New York City Council.
See https://stopthechopnynj.org/legislation/ The NPS/FAA draft Agreement runs counter to the electeds’ goals of banning or substantially reducing nonessential helicopter traffic in the NYC region, and I have serious concerns regarding it for the reasons Iisted above.
CONCLUSION:
The reality is that the only solution to the above problems is elimination of such nonessential helicopter flights. Fortunately, tourists who seek to view Governors Island, the Statue of Liberty and/or Ellis Island have options by using the existing ferry systems and boat-based tour operators. I strongly urge the FAA and NPS to make the bold but proper step to revise this plan and ban these non-essential sightseeing helicopters in the New York metro area, as no other fair solution is feasible.
Sincerely,
Your name
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Thanks for submitting your comments and please share this email widely!
Best,
Melissa Elstein, STCNYNJ Board Chair, Secretary & Coalition Organizer
http://www.stopthechopnynj.org