NEWS

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 17, 2001
   
 

NASAO-FAA pact focuses on environmental streamlining and airport approach protection
   

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Silver Spring, MD – Federal Aviation Administrator Jane F. Garvey and National Association of State Aviation Officials Chairman Dr. John C. Eagerton IV have renewed their organizations' historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and agreed to jointly focus on the issues of environmental streamlining and protecting airports from tall structures and incompatible land use.

Eagerton, who is the Chief of the Alabama Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Bureau, said, "NASAO and FAA are going to work closely together to determine the extent to which the federal and state environmental review requirements can be more effectively and efficiently combined and coordinated to streamline the overall process. Our goal is to increase airport capacity and decrease passenger delays by expediting the review process on airport construction projects. We believe that we can speed up the process without endangering the environment in any way."

NASAO and FAA also pledged to work together in a "strong partnership" to protect airport approaches from obstructions and impediments to air navigation. The organizations will work cooperatively to outline a joint process for coordinating the review of tall structure and land use proposals near airports, to enhance overall aviation safety. In addition, FAA will conduct seminars with state aviation officials for airport operators and municipal planners on the subject of compatible land and airspace use.

The NASAO-FAA 2001 initiatives are part of a five-year MOU signed today in a ceremony in Administrator Garvey's office. The initiatives included in this MOU were drafted by Bill Gehman, director of the Michigan Bureau of Aeronautics and Bart Bartanowicz, regional administrator for the FAA New England Region.

This agreement continues the tradition begun in 1996 with the original MOU establishing a long-term partnership between the two organizations. Since then, FAA and NASAO have successfully addressed a number of wide-ranging topics including runway incursions, creation of a partnership to enhance the State Block Grant Program, GPS survey standards, airport pavement management, general aviation airport lighting, weather information planning and aircraft noise problems.
 
 

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NASAO represents the state government aviation agencies which serve the public interest in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Please visit our website at http://www.nasao.org.