New Rules In Works For Grand Canyon Tours

A new effort is underway to end a 17-year impasse between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Park Service to regulate sightseeing flights over the Grand Canyon. Later this month, the Grand Canyon Working Group - a 20-member panel composed of the FAA, the Park Service...

For immediate service; more information; and multi-user access (site license), non-profit organization, educational institute pricing, contact Karen Garner kgarner@accessintel.com at (301) 354-1612.

This story is only available to paid subscribers. Please login below with your username and password if you are a subscriber.

Username:
Password:
	What is my password?

Subscribe     Trial

A new effort is underway to end a 17-year impasse between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Park Service to regulate sightseeing flights over the Grand Canyon.

Later this month, the Grand Canyon Working Group - a 20-member panel composed of the FAA, the Park Service, environmentalists, tour operators and members of the Navajo, Hopi, Havasupai and Hualapai tribes - will begin a series of public hearings in order to craft a new environmental impact statement to restore "natural quiet" to the canyon.

The two federal agencies are trying to meet a presidential order issued in 1996 by then-President Clinton that requires "substantial restoration of quiet" by 2008. Efforts to ban or limit sightseeing flights dates back to 1975.

By June 2007, the two federal agencies are scheduled to release a draft environmental impact statement that outlines a preferred course of action to meet the 2008 goal, said Mary Killeen, chief of the Park Service's planning and compliance office at the Grand Canyon. That draft statement will be subject to additional public hearings and comments. The goal, she said, is to release the final statement in early 2008 and the FAA will then finalize it in its rulemaking process.

A parallel consultation process will also be underway this year with the 11 Native American tribes that surround the canyon.

The formation of the work group last summer was a step to engage in an alternative dispute resolution process in an effort to meet the 2008 goal, Killeen said. "Our history has shown that in the last 17 years we can't do that well working together. The reason we are not there yet is because our agencies have very different missions and perspectives on how we should reach the restoration of natural quiet.

"Even though our missions are different, why can't we draft something that meets both our objectives? The FAA's concern is safety and ours is the restoration of natural quiet. And, then there is everybody in-between."

Killeen's counterpart at the FAA is not allowed to speak to the media and an FAA spokesman familiar with the project failed to return phone calls.

As the agencies prepare to begin the public hearing process, neither the Park Service nor the FAA are releasing advance peeks at latest positions. Killeen said information would be available after the first hearing on Feb. 21.

The group will be working on a variety of alternatives in an effort to reach a preferred alternative, which will be the basis for the draft impact statement.

"There could be an extreme range of alternatives. They do have to come to some terms and justify why they may take a proposed alternative off the table. They will need to reach a consensus on what they consider the preferred alternative.

"This is a way to get something done," Killeen said. "It does not make everyone happy, but it also doesn't give away the store."

The range of alternatives could include adjusting curfews, pulling air traffic from either end of the park or changing the air tour routes. At the extremes, Killeen said the group might seek legislation to end a ban or implement an outright ban.

In 2004, the most recent year with complete records, there were about 60,000 commercial air tours of the Grand Canyon - about 40,000 on helicopters and 20,000 using fixed-wing aircraft. In 2000, there were 70,000 flights. The lowest point in the last five years was in 2002 when there were about 50,000 tours.

According to stats prepared for the working group, the bulk of the fixed-wing flights are in the west end of the canyon while the most helicopter tours are in the east end of the park. In 2004, there were 35,000 total tours in the east end and 25,000 total tour flights in the west end. In addition, the Hualapai tribe runs both helicopter and fixed-wing air tours in the west end of the canyon. In 2004, 30,000 of the 60,000 tours provided by a tribal company.

In the early 1990s, there were 44 commercial air tour operators. Today, there are 13 operators.

Current rules prohibit flights under 14,500 feet over a large portion of the canyon. Along designated flight paths, aircraft cannot travel below 18,000 feet. The flight paths for the helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft generally don't overlap. There are two general aviation corridors into the air to serve local airports. The general aviation aircraft can fly as low as 10,500 feet.

"Substantial quiet" has now been defined - due to lawsuits and previous rule writing attempts - to mean that 50 percent of the park is quiet 75 to 100 percent of the day.

As part of this latest attempt to fashion an environmental impact statement, the Park Service has developed a model based on the noise of both helicopter and airplane tours over the canyon, Killeen said. The model has tried to factor out the overhead noise of general aviation, military and commercial flights. "The model is really directed to the air tours," she added.

Previously, the FAA was asked to prohibit commercial flights over Arizona from detouring to give their passengers a high altitude sightseeing tour of the region.

Bryan T. Hill, in a filing, asked the group not to raise the minimum ceiling along the general aviation corridors to 14,500 feet. If the ceiling is boosted, Hill noted the impact on general aviation "will be a severe hardship. Many, if not most, light general aviation aircraft are not equipped with enough horsepower to navigate to 14,500 nor are they equipped with oxygen for a legal flight at 14,500," he said. "Any closure of the corridors to general aviation will place a hardship on an element of aviation that has arguably little-to-no impact on canyon noise."

Despite a less-than-successful record at reaching a consensus, Killeen is hopeful the work group can produce a recommendation that can indeed be implemented. Killeen had been involved in a similar four-year effort to write new water management rules for the Colorado River, which released its recommendations last week.

>>For information on the FAA and Park Service presentation at the public hearings, e-mail either Steve.Mays@faa.gov or Grace_Ellis@nps.gov. Comments can be entered into the FAA docket at FAA-2005-23402. Contact: Mary Killeen, NPS, (928) 638-7885.<<