Summary

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides grants to help airports control the amount of aircraft noise affecting neighboring areas. Under FAA policy, airport owners receiving such grants must obtain from each city, county, municipality, or other agency with authority over property affected by the grant a written declaration stating that the project is reasonably consistent with local plans or has local support. Complying with this policy has been an issue at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where some local groups opposed to the airport's expansion have criticized the airport's noise mitigation program and have pointed out that FAA did not require the airport to obtain written declarations that the project was consistent with local plans and had local support. GAO determines whether FAA must enforce this grant assurance as a condition of providing noise mitigation grants to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which is run by the Port of Seattle.

GAO noted that: (1) while FAA has a policy calling for an airport owner that requests noise mitigation grants to obtain written declarations that the project is consistent with local plans and has local support from communities affected by airport noise, neither federal law nor FAA regulations require such written declarations; (2) the federal statutes do contain a broad requirement that FAA must satisfy itself that a noise mitigation project is consistent with local plans; (3) however, the statutes make no mention of obtaining from cities, counties, or municipalities in which a noise mitigation project is located written declarations stating that the project is reasonably consistent with local plans and has local support; (4) FAA officials said that in the case of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, they met the statutory requirements by reviewing steps the airport completed prior to applying for grants for noise mitigation projects, primarily the development of a noise compatability program, a process that involves public participation; and (5) FAA officials said that their review of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport's noise compatability planning efforts satisfied them that the noise mitigation projects were consistent with local plans and had local support.