The perennial problem of noise from helicopter traffic traversing the North Fork on the way to East Hampton will become a problem spread across the entire North Fork this summer season if the 2016 summer route proposed by the Eastern Region Helicopter Council is put in place.
The new plan calls for flight paths to cross three points on the North Fork — and that has residents and Southold Town officials seeing red.
“The problem is the overwhelming majority of the traffic now comes in over Mattituck inlet. They’re looking to establish three routes. One over Mattituck, one over Peconic and one over Orient,” Supervisor Scott Russell said.
“They’re not solving Southold’s problem — they’re just spreading it out,” he said.
The supervisor said every resident of Southold Town should call Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to register their objection to this plan.
The North Shore helicopter route — which requires helicopters flying east from New York City to fly out over the Sound at a minimum altitude of 2,500 feet as far east as just east of Iron Pier in Riverhead, when they can fly southeast to East Hampton airport — was established in response to residents’ complaints about helicopter noise.
But the North Shore route was not established to serve the interests of the East End, Russell said. In fact it made things much worse by keeping the aircraft off shore until they pass Riverhead, the route creates an aerial highway over Mattituck.
“It’s not solving the problem unless you live in Manhasset,” Russell said. He called on Schumer, who he said created the route, to “withdraw all support from the North Shore route.”
While federal lawmakers say the matter is a result of FAA regulations over which they have no control, Russell said they could override the FAA with legislation even if it meant burying a statutory provision in an omnibus budget bill.
“They say they’re worried about getting sued,” Russell said. “I find that disingenuous. They’ve never been afraid of lawsuits in the past.”
The North Shore route should extend a couple miles east of Plum Island, so they can fly across Gardiner’s Bay, Russell said. The pilots object to that on the basis of expense and time.
Councilman William Ruland asked if the town could sue the FAA. The supervisor said he and the town attorney had spoken to experts in the field and were not at all encouraged.
“If our options are down to the last one, I would look into it again,” Ruland said. “We have an obligation to our residents in Southold to look under every stone. Because common sense doesn’t seem to prevail here, we should look to the legal realm.”
A group called Friends of the East Hampton Airport, along with five aircraft operators and two trade organizations sued the Town of East Hampton in Federal District Court a year ago, seeking to overturn newly adopted airport rules that imposed access restrictions on helicopters. The plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction on the enforcement of the three new rules, but the court, in a decision rendered last June, only granted an injunction as to one of them — a one-trip limit — allowing the mandatory curfew and the extended curfew rules to stand during the pendency of the action. The plaintiffs appealed the court’s decision. The case remains pending.
In the local election last year, a new super PAC called the East Hampton Leadership Council, funded by pumped more than $45,000 into the Republican candidates challenging the incumbent Democrats on the East Hampton Town Board, including the supervisor, who supported the new rules. Other funds from helicopter companies and NYC attorneys and businesses put the support of the Republican candidates at “well over $150,000,” according to Kathleen Cunningham of the Quiet Skies Coalition.
“The bottom line is there’s huge money behind wanting it the way it is. That doesn’t do anything for the quality of life of our residents,” Ruland said today. “I feel bad. We’re sitting here with nothing but bad news.”
The supervisor wants to see North Fork residents protest the summer route proposal — loud and hard.
“I want to put this map on our website along with contact information for our federal representatives,” he said, holding a picture of the proposed summer route map.
“Every resident of Southold knows what’s going to happen this summer.”
