Noise and the Island Airport
Last Thursday a small group from CommunityAIR went down to the Bathurst Quay neighbourhood to shoot a film on noise and air pollution from the Island Airport. We set up the camera on the sea wall bordering the Western Gap with the airport in the background and began our interview with a medical doctor. Then it started.
First it was the helicopters. They took off from the airport and flew low, directly over us, over the South Beach Condos and over the Alexandria and National Yacht Clubs. Every time a helicopter flight went overhead, and there were at least three occasions during the 20 minute interview we conducted, it was so deafening we almost had to stop talking.
Next it was the Porter flights. The worst were the landings. As the planes come in they reverse their engines to bring the aircraft to a stop. It is a loud, sustained, high pitched noise that goes on for at least a minute each time a plane lands. Taking off the planes use their greatest thrust over the water, but the noise from the air craft reverberated all the way to the location site of our small film crew.
Noise from the Island Airport this summer is much worse than at any time in the past. Perhaps we were shooting at a particularly busy time for the helicopters, but the Porter flights are much more frequent because the company has more planes than any commercial operation ever had at the Island Airport.
People in the Bathurst Quay neighbourhood, along Waterfront West and the new condos along Fleet Street and in the Railway Lands are bearing the brunt of the Island Airport expansion and unfortunately, with the expansion of Porter, it is going to get worse.
It is time to organize against the noise. This is a quality of life issue. People, particularly children and the elderly, are suffering. The Toronto Port Authority has to be held to account. It is not justified to subject the residents of this neighbourhood to this level of noise.
Bill Freeman
First it was the helicopters. They took off from the airport and flew low, directly over us, over the South Beach Condos and over the Alexandria and National Yacht Clubs. Every time a helicopter flight went overhead, and there were at least three occasions during the 20 minute interview we conducted, it was so deafening we almost had to stop talking.
Next it was the Porter flights. The worst were the landings. As the planes come in they reverse their engines to bring the aircraft to a stop. It is a loud, sustained, high pitched noise that goes on for at least a minute each time a plane lands. Taking off the planes use their greatest thrust over the water, but the noise from the air craft reverberated all the way to the location site of our small film crew.
Noise from the Island Airport this summer is much worse than at any time in the past. Perhaps we were shooting at a particularly busy time for the helicopters, but the Porter flights are much more frequent because the company has more planes than any commercial operation ever had at the Island Airport.
People in the Bathurst Quay neighbourhood, along Waterfront West and the new condos along Fleet Street and in the Railway Lands are bearing the brunt of the Island Airport expansion and unfortunately, with the expansion of Porter, it is going to get worse.
It is time to organize against the noise. This is a quality of life issue. People, particularly children and the elderly, are suffering. The Toronto Port Authority has to be held to account. It is not justified to subject the residents of this neighbourhood to this level of noise.
Bill Freeman
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