From the Office of Utah Congressman Jim Matheson

MATHESON NEWS
Second Congressional District

For Further Information
Alyson Heyrend: (801) 455-5593 (cell)
www.house.gov/matheson

September 13, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Matheson: Plan to Reroute Planes Over Wasatch and East Bench Officially Scrapped

Salt Lake City, UT—Congressman Jim Matheson said today that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has responded to his June 20th letter asking if a questionable flight path redesign may be reconsidered with a letter saying the plan is officially dead.

Matheson said the September 4th letter is from FAA Administrator Marion Blakey.  In part it says, “We are developing overlay procedures using the same flight paths that exist today… while pursuing area navigation procedures to help increase efficiency and reduce noise and jet emissions.”

“I am very pleased that the FAA has decided to abandon a plan that ignored the views of independent technical experts and was lacking community input. I look forward to the agency’s new evaluation of the Salt Lake City area—scheduled to begin in the summer of 2008—and to the adoption of procedures that emphasize safety, efficiency and quality of life,” said Matheson. 

The so-called Northern Utah Airspace Initiative was proposed by FAA in 2003.  The agency said it was necessary to address airspace overcrowding and looming airport delays. But the environmental planning process stalled when Matheson, the Director of the Salt Lake International Airport, local elected officials, environmental groups, and two major airlines questioned the idea.

The most significant concern was the prospect of low flying airplanes crossing the Wasatch canyons in Northern Utah county, the east Bench of Salt Lake County and southern Davis County.

Matheson strongly questioned the FAA’s claim that such a drastic change—one that would negatively affect hundreds of thousands of property owners and users of the Wasatch canyons—was necessary. He repeatedly raised those concerns with the FAA throughout the process.

“Holding this federal agency accountable and standing up for the residents of the Salt Lake Valley won out today,” said Matheson.

The FAA’s response is on Matheson’s website at www.house.gov/matheson

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Alyson Heyrend
Communications Director
240 East Morris Ave. #235
South Salt Lake, UT 84115
(801) 486-1236 (phone)
(801) 455-5593 (cell)
(801) 486-1417 (fax)