Noise Exposure Forecasts Development Concern for Residents

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The issue of Noise Pollution is detailed in what is called a "Noise Exposure Forecast" or "NEF". The airport regularly develops these reports (forecasts) as a mechanism to aid and inform municipalities on the effects and solutions of developing land in areas susceptible to high levels of exposure to aircraft engine noise. The town of Portugal Cove sits directly below the flight path for runway 11-29, for almost 70% of regular traffic to and from the St. John's airport. This runway is the primary runway for the airport due to prevailing westerly winds in this region. In addition, it is the longest runway for aircraft.

St John's International Airport has 3 operational runways, 11-29, 16-34 and 02-20. Runway 11-29 is the primary runway and accommodates approximately 70% of arrivals and departures. Runway selection choice is determined by the pilot in conjunction with Navcanada air traffic control services at the airport. The main factors, among others, in selecting the active runway are wind direction, wind speed and forward and vertical visibility conditions. Aircraft arrivals and departures are generally conducted in the opposite direction to the prevailing wind direction. The prevailing wind at the airport is generally from a westerly direction therefore most aircraft arrive and depart in an east to west direction thus favoring runway 11-29.

The Airport Authority is aware of the sensitivities of aircraft noise in the vicinity of the airport and as such we routinely provide advice and recommendations to municipalities and land developers regarding Transport Canada guidelines for land use in the vicinity of the airport. Mr. Peter Avery, Director of Infrastructure Planning and Development with the Airport Authority is working closely with consulting engineers to continually update the noise exposure forecasts for the airport and to assess and mitigate noise exposure to surrounding municipalities in terms of future development scenarios for the Airport Authority.

Development for what is called the "Murray's Pond" area directly conflicts with the basis of proper zone planning around NEF contours of the airport. Portions of Portugal Cove, especially areas near Murray's Pond - are at the highest exposure to the noise. The NEF chart provided by the Airport Authority in 2007 was generated in late 2005 for planning up to 2025, including both commercial and military aircraft traffic. The Airport Authority did not anticipate these contours to change significantly during their master plan.

According to the Airport Authority, there is a tendency across the country for the 25 contour to be used as the planning NEF boundary. Residential developments are not encouraged to be built inside of this contour. Below the 25 NEF ( i.e. outside the contour) aircraft noise is generally not a problem; this is supported by Transport Canada for new airports and TC also does not support new residential developments inside the 30 for existing airports. However, the 35 NEF is still the planning contour used by Municipal Affairs within our province and the Airport Authority have lobbied for it to be changed to at least the 30 contour, and consider the national trend of 25, as the 35 NEF and the current planning guidelines within the province are outdated by modern day standards. There is not only the issue of building within the NEF Contour, but also that developments within that area, with clear cutting and bulldozing ground cover and erecting structures, may contribute to the noise factor.

During the Master Plan exercise the Airport Authority intended to engage all the surrounding municipalities on a range of issues including land use planning and noise. The airport authority seem to take every step in engaging the developing land near the airport, but very little effort was demonstrated by our previous Mayor and most councilors to rectify the concern. Most of them considered this issue trivial and unimportant! However, the town of St. John’s has been working with the airport authority on several occasions.

Our town must engage this issue as it is not the responsibility of the airport. The Airport Authority are more than eager to work with municipalities to reduce exposure but it was obvious the previous council had no desire to help residents, but they sure helped the developers make the area resemble airport heights. This issue is very much within the Town's jurisdiction to control and the Town has an obligation to honour its Municipal Plan and Development Regulations. The issue of the NEF contour is addressed in the Municipal Plan, General Policies, 3.3 (xi) and again in Rural Residential, 3.4.2.3 (v).

The revised Town Plan is intended to guide the town until 2017, so this issue must be addressed. The Northeast Avalon Regional Plan apparently supersedes the Municipal Plan so that the latter must be consistent with the former. In fact currently, areas that may be affected by the NEF contour or may affect others are being denuded of vegetation, trees on a floodplain are being destroyed, marsh is being filled in, and houses are being constructed as "echo boards", as we speak.

A letter was sent to Council/Mayor and Diane Whalen regarding this issue - asking for their support to take this issue to the Regional Planning board, as a commitment to the well-being of town residents and a commitment to the prosperity of our town. That request went on deaf ears. While the Airport Authority welcomed and encouraged any interaction from municipalities on this issue, they welcomed the opportunity to discuss this issue with the municipal planners.

The Murray's Pond Development was heavily wooded, covered with shrub, etc., and contained a fair amount of marsh. All the big trees and shrub have been bulldozed and the marsh has been filled in. Such conditions have severely decreased the absorbing of noise!! I am sure you have noticed that the development plans continue to bulldoze a lot more of this subdivision, destroying natural and noise suppressing vegetation. A similar situation is now occurring with a new development across the road from the Murray's Pond Development.

The town and the developers clearly turned a blind eye to the situation and disregard the effects of developing in areas of high NEF contours. The previous council also knew they had a new development plan in progress that would see even more land destroyed within this area, with no references to NEF or communications with the Airport Authority. While requests to council to engage this issue largely feel on deaf ears, it was with the help of Mr Fagan that some pressure was kept on the concern and in council meetings.

This is a case where the town as an administrative entity must be distinguished from the town as a geographical identity. This may not appear to be a problem for all residents, but for the residents near Murrays Pond, it sure is. AT THIS POINT THE NOISE LEVELS ARE AFFECTING THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR PORTUGAL COVE RESIDENTS. This issue is not between the St. John’s airport and the City of St. John’s.

In case you’re interested here is a summary of some events that took place:

August 19, 2007: A recommendation was put forward to create an “NEF Ad-hoc committee”, particularly to Jon Seary and the Public Works Committee, with a mandate to provide a report on the NEF/Portugal Cove with recommendations as to how noise levels from the St. John's Airport may be best dealt with in the interests of the people of Portugal Cove/Murray's Pond-Airport area.

August 28, 2007: Committee with Council Seary as chair, did not submit anything to council, or suggest an ad hoc committee be struck to look at the issue.

September 2007: Ron Penny, CAO for the City of St. John's stated that no discussions ever took place with the Town regarding NEF. Keith Collins of the St. John's International Airport Authority confirmed this adding that among other things flight paths were chosen considering prevailing winds.

September 11, 2007: There was nothing in the Council meeting addressing the issue.

October 2, 2007: Stephen Andrews agreed to bring this forward to the Urban Region Plan review and provide details on the results. Only one update was received.

November 2007: During a review of the Revised Town Plan in a council meeting and the topic of NEF, there was a lack of understanding of this topic and the implications for the town.

November 14, 2007: Steve Andrews stated that there would be public hearings to speak directly on the concerns of NEF and Town planning.

This never happened!

Murray's Pond Development

Do you think this is an accurate description of the Development going on in our community? Portugal Cove is looking more like Airport heights than a rural community with trees and reasons for people to move here to live. You be the judge!

This was taken right off Paul McDonald - Murray’s Pond Development Limited website -

Welcome to Murray’s Pond Subdivision, a planned unit development in a unique rural open setting. Featuring large oversized lots the homesites have plenty of room to accomodate ranch-style homes, multiple car parking, RV’s, garages, workshops, above ground apartments, garden studios, or just plain open space and privacy. Some sites have panoramic views of Portugal Cove, Miller’s Pond, and adjacent communities. No curbs, gutters, or sidewalks and plenty of trees and greenery allows the development to retain the rural tradition of Portugal Cove/St.Philips, however, the lots are fully serviced with town water and sewer services. We are proud to say we have the largest fully serviced homesites within close proximity to St. John’s.

Drive by and have a look, we think you’ll agree that Murray’s Pond Subdivision is a step above the rest.

Official Dum, Official Dee!

Is Government administration in a mess?
Who is calling the shots?

Is it the Minister in charge of Departments, or is it the Officials who are in these Departments and in many cases, have been there before the Ministers, and will be there after the Ministers move on?

We are all watching the episodes of the Cancer (Cameron) inquiry.
There were certainly problems in the Department of Health. Information did not always get to the Minister. It was blocked at some point in Officialdom.

We now have the officials from the Premier's Office testifying. They all seem to have no memories! Why would officials with no memories be hired in the Premier's Office? Certainly, one would think that an Official in that capacity would have a sense of what is significant and what is not significant and would deal with the significant information differently from the insignificant information, and would remember the significant information later or would have earmarked it at the time so that it could be recalled later.

Now we have the Department of Municipal Affairs. A Town Councilor wrote a letter to the Minister on a rather serious topic in the Town. Later he received a record of an e-mail which showed that an Official had sent this correspondence to the Deputy Minister with a note: "For your reading enjoyment!" We can only assume the Minister never saw the correspondence. Whether or not the Deputy Minister enjoyed it, is not known!

The Deputy Chief of Staff in the Premier's Office wrote a Town Councilor regarding correspondence the Councilor was forwarding to the Premier's Office. The Official wrote: "... all further correspondence from you to the Premier's Office on these matters will be forwarded unopened to the Department of Municipal Affairs. Please be advised that no further responses will be forthcoming from this office." One piece of correspondence the Councilor sent to the Premier was a request to investigate the Department of Municipal Affairs on a number of matters. Imagine, the Official is not going to let the Premier see this but forward this to the Department of Municipal Affairs? Official-dum! Official-dee?

And now an MHA says of the Department of Transportation that at least two Officials should go. He says they are ignorant.

Is there enough evidence here to raise questions about the role and power of Officials in Government? Are these Officials creating a bottleneck in Government Departments in terms of the people trying to get to the Government Ministers and Premier? Are Government Departments becoming dysfunctional in terms of lines of communication?

Do we need Ministers at all? Perhaps all we need is a Chief Official in each Department (the Land of Official-dum). At least that person at the top, the Chief Official, will likely be the informed one!
RLE/2008

Municipal Affairs - Who Runs it?

On November 5, 2007 Minister Dave Denine wrote me in response to earlier correspondence and

stated: "If you have further questions regarding the (Ken Kelly) report please contact Eastern Regional

Manager Dan Noseworthy at 729-7390. On November 21, 2007, I wrote Mr. Noseworthy and outlined ten

(10) questions re the Ken Kelly Report. On December 19, Mr. Noseworthy replied but did not answer the

questions. I again wrote Mr. Noseworthy and later wrote the Premier and Minister Denine with copies to Mr.

Noseworthy, to all Cabinet Ministers and eventually to all PC Caucus members. Of all that group the only

ones who acknowledged my correspondence were Elizabeth Marshall, MHA, Topsail, Ed Buckingham, MHA,

St. John's East, and Steve Kent, MHA, Mount Pearl North. There has been more response among

backbenchers than from cabinet ministers. It makes me wonder if Steve Kent, a former Mount Pearl Mayor,

had been appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs, if information would have been more forthcoming?

The credibility of any government can be measured by the respect it shows for people. As an MHA,

Dave Denine represents the people of Mount Pearl South; as a cabinet minister, Mr. Denine represents the

people of the province. When he writes a resident to direct questions to a civil servant, then he should

ensure that the questions are answered. Since they were not answered, then it brings into question who is

running the Department of Municipal Affairs? I raised 10 questions about the Ken Kelly report which had

been commissioned by former Minister, Jack Byrne, to investigate matters in the town of Portugal Cove-St.

Philip's. The people of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's were charged $12,000.00 for this report. There has been

negative feedback regarding this report, and one councilor has done a critical analysis of the portion of the

report on Working Relations. One of my questions to Mr. Noseworthy was who influenced the writing of the

report? It is important that my questions be answered.

But where do I go to get them answered? Mr. Denine, the Minister passes me off to a civil servant

and he does not answer. That makes me think he has more power than the Minister! My letters to the

Premier, Cabinet Ministers do not make any difference. This not only raises the question of who is running

the Department of Municipal Affairs, but how arrogant the Government is, in terms of not responding to

residents.

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No Tape Recorders Allowed Says Mayor!

Apparently the town has passed motions that forbid the recording of public town council meetings. Imagine - one cannot record the activities of a public meeting because some council members and the mayor said they don't want meetings recorded.

We say that if council does not want their words recorded, what are they hiding (afraid of)? IF they cannot trust their mouths out of fear of their skullduggery, then they should step down. When councillors took an oath to represent the people, that was the responsibility they agreed to undertake - what is said is public knowledge. Lets remind council that this is not the free masons club!

Poor Roads in Town

There are quite a few roads in the town that are well beyond a safe condition. Particularly Portugal Cove road around Windsor Lake, to which St. John's maintains. This was originally put in place in 1826 by hand. Upgraded in the 1960's, and taken over by the City of SJ's in 1984.

A recent meeting in the town by residents, highlighted the issues of safety, the environment and accountability of St. John's to Diane Whalen who was in attendance,