Impact studies make some noise at ADM's annual meeting

Though there were no large-scale protests as at last year's annual general meeting of Aéroports de Montréal, many citizens took to the microphones at the airport authority's meeting earlier today to question them about noise impact studies and environmental concerns.

"What protection are you planning to put into place to protect the population around Pierre-Elliot Trudeau airport?" Asked Dorval resident Paul Wilkinson, a member of both the Green Coalition and Citizens for Quality of Life in Dorval, grassroots groups concerned with the environment and airport-related health issues, respectively.

Wilkinson tore into the ADM for not taking into consideration the results of a noise impact study released by the Imperial College of London, England last year that concluded an increase in blood pressure and hyper-tension may result from exposure to "night time aircraft noise and average 24-hour road traffic noise exposure."

ADM President James Cherry noted that Montreal was not among the airports studied by Imperial College of London. "There are probably an equal amount of studies that refute this (study's) conclusion," he added, though he did not name any.

Wilkinson pointed out many airports in the United States of America have offered to sound-proof residences and schools. However, Cherry responded those airports had help. "Governments did that, not the airports," he said.

According to the ADM's annual report distributed today, the population living within the Dorval airport's noise footprint has shrunk down by 83 per cent since 1995, from 107, 333 to 17, 902 people.

"I can't take credit for that," Cherry said. "That's because we have better aircrafts."

Graphs in the report suggest noise level at all eight noise-monitoring stations set up by the airport have seen a decrease in decibel levels since 2003, but a slight increase when comparing 2007 to 2008. Last year, they appeared highest in Dorval North and St. Laurent South, hovering between 60 and 70 dB, and lowest in Pointe Claire, below 60.

Cherry repeated that the airport has given its full co-operation to a study currently being conducted by the Montreal public health department. "We've given them all our information, all our data, everything that they've asked for," he said.

Though it was announced as a six-month study when launched last fall, Cherry refused to characterize the hold-up as a delay. "These things take time," he said at a press conference following the annual general meeting. "This is a really complicated process."

During the meeting, Lachine resident Luc Marion, president of that borough's branch of Citizens for Quality of Life, also took to the stands, questioning Cherry on the permanence of the airport's abandon of night flights over a section of Highway 13 and the Lachine industrial sector. "Is it a (temporary) suspension, or abandonment?" Marion asked, adding various statements by the airport authority seem to contradict each other.

"It's abandonment," Cherry said, adding that after two years of test flights, it has been determined the current technology simply does not allow pilots to fly up quickly enough to avoid making a significant impact on the local noise footprint.



Though Lachine is clear of night flights, the city of Dorval has been petitioning the airport to stop operating them over its own territory since last July, to no avail so far.

"We don't fly at all hours of the day for fun," Cherry said when the issue was brought up, adding the reason night flights exist is because of passenger demand. He did not comment on whether night flights in Dorval could stop if the Montreal Health Department study indicated they could be hazardous to health.

As for an independent noise impact study being led by Citizens for Quality of Life, Cherry said sonometers used by individual citizens in random places were difficult to take too seriously. "We don't even know where they'll be using them," he said. "We'll give it the credibility it deserves," he added.