Ensign, Reid back LV air tour operators on Lake Mead issue

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 | 10:42 a.m.

The biggest worry Southern Nevada's air tour operators had when they learned that a new set of air tour rules was being established for Lake Mead National Recreation Area was whether the new regulations would somehow affect existing flights to the Grand Canyon.

But on Tuesday, Nevada's U.S. senators made it clear at a public hearing on the Lake Mead proposals that Grand Canyon tours would be left alone -- and if that's not how aviation and Park Service officials interpret the rules, the lawmakers would push for legislation that would make things crystal clear.

In a letter co-signed by Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign on Tuesday to Marion Blakey, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, and Fran Minella, director of the National Park Service, tour operators were assured that they could fly over Lake Mead on their way to the Grand Canyon without having to comply with whatever new restrictions emerge on Lake Mead.

A representative for the two senators read the letter at the first of several meetings to develop an air tour management plan for the park southeast of Las Vegas. The meeting in Henderson was called to determine what issues need to be resolved by federal officials as they develop an environmental assessment and, eventually, the air tour management plan.

The entire process is expected to take 2 1/2 years to complete. FAA and Park Service officials don't expect to have an environmental assessment completed for public review until late 2004 or early 2005. Tuesday's meeting was one of the first steps of the process as the plan's authors sought comments on what would be important to consider when drafting the document. The public has until May 31 to submit written testimony.

The FAA and the Park Service already identified three areas they intend to study: potential noise impacts, potential impacts on the visitor experience and potential impacts on sites of importance to Indian tribes.

Legislation that established the drafting of air tour management plans at Lake Mead and Park Service-administered areas across the country exempt Grand Canyon tour operators from the Lake Mead rules, but administrators gearing up for the scoping meeting had said any tour that called attention to the lake and its surroundings would be considered a Lake Mead tour and would be subject to the new rules.

But the letter from Reid and Ensign sought to clarify the issue.

Don Wilson, deputy regional manager for Reid's office, read and delivered the two-page letter when the public hearing opened.

The letter said "if a commercial air tour company flying from Las Vegas, transitioning Lake Mead en route to the Grand Canyon, also provides a narrative about the Lake Mead National Recreation Area or the famous Hoover Dam as part of the in-flight experience, that does not disqualify them from the exemption we authored and make them subject to the provisions of the new (air tour management plan).

"It is now our understanding that there may be some confusion on the part of the FAA and NPS on this issue and that some seek to interpret the Lake Mead exemption that Sen. Reid authored differently," the letter said. "This is very distressing. If there is any ambiguity whatsoever with the intent of this language or its interpretation, we are prepared to fix the problem statutorily if necessary."

Only one air tour operator addressed the hearing, attended by about 30 people.

John Sullivan, chief executive of Sundance Helicopters, Las Vegas, also addressed the so-called "Lake Mead exemption" on flights to the Grand Canyon.

"My company will turn our tape decks off while we cross the lake if we have to, but I do not think that is what Congress had in mind when it wrote and approved this section," Sullivan said.

Several environmental speakers asked that administrators pay close attention to monitoring noise levels at the park.

Dick Hingson, chairman of the noise-aviation subcommittee of the Sierra Club recreational issues committee, said he has been blocked from obtaining a list of current Lake Mead air tour operators and the number of operations they are permitted to have.

Brian Armstrong, who is heading the air tour management project on behalf of the FAA, said the list of current operators would be published in the Federal Register and that the number of operations permitted per company hasn't been firmed up yet. FAA officials said there are 20 operators authorized to make 82,175 flights a year over Lake Mead National Recreation Area, a 1.5 million acre-park straddling the Colorado River and including Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. That number includes flights en route to the Grand Canyon.

Hingson and Bart Patterson of the Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club said they hoped the air tour management plan would coordinate air tour quiet zones to match quiet areas already designated for watercraft and with wilderness areas around the lake.

John Hiatt, conservation chair of the Red Rock Audubon Society, said his group hopes the plan would limit the number of flights allowed through caps or curfews and limit new flights, even while airports at the Grand Canyon and Mesquite continue to grow. He also suggested that administrators monitor the progress of quiet aircraft technology and see that operators are aware of its availability.

Noise curtailment is an issue that has been a source of consternation for tour operators flying to the Grand Canyon.

Environmentalists say noise rules are necessary to assure natural quiet, especially at the nation's most popular parks, while pilots say the rules are ambiguous, impossible to abide by and have hurt business because they have resulted in caps and curfews on flights.